COVID-19 cases in KC metro ramp back up as average for new cases surpasses 1,000
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 600 new COVID-19 cases, bumping the seven-day average over 1,000.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 601 coronavirus cases for a total of 120,631 to date.
The seven-day average for daily new cases rose to 1,005. One week ago, the average was 855 and two weeks ago it was 725, according to data maintained by The Star.
The metro has not been above an average of 1,000 cases since Dec. 13.
The area’s record seven-day average was set on Nov. 22 at 1,199.
Five new deaths were reported Monday. One was in Johnson County and four were in Wyandotte County, raising the metro’s total to 1,481. The seven-day average for daily deaths is at a record high of 15.
The University of Kansas Health System had 66 patients hospitalized for the virus, down five from Friday. Twenty-three of the patients were in the intensive care unit with 14 on ventilators.
“The death in the past couple of weeks has been significantly more than anything that we have seen,” said ICU nurse manager Casey Pickering. “Just on my unit alone we ended up losing nine patients last week. You see it in the faces of the staff. It’s interesting — with the first dose of the vaccine, there was a lot of joy, lots of people were really excited about that. It’s almost like we kind of forgot how heavy and hard the work is, we got that little boost. And then the mood has drastically been different as the rates of death have continued to increase.”
On Monday, Kansas confirmed 247,502 cases including 3,255 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 12.7%.
The state has received 192,200 doses of the vaccine with 77,217 administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Missouri reported 424,986 cases including 5,951 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 18.2%.
Missouri has received 420,000 vaccine doses with 150,070 administered, the CDC said.
Across the country, more than 22.5 million people have contracted the virus and 375,239 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
