Local physicians encouraged as Kansas City metro adds less than 500 new COVID cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 400 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths on Wednesday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 437 coronavirus cases for a total of 130,507 to date.
That drove the seven-day average for daily new cases down to 559. One week ago, the average was 610 and two weeks ago, it was 990, according to data maintained by The Star.
Kansas City added one more death for a total of 434 while Jackson County added two for a total of 307. Clay County added one, raising its total to 123 and Platte County also added one for a total of 35.
On the Kansas side, Johnson County added two deaths, increasing its toll to 561. Wyandotte County did not report any new deaths but has recorded a total of 221.
A total of 1,681 deaths have been reported in the metro since the pandemic began.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 60 people hospitalized with the virus, down three from Tuesday. Eleven patients were in the intensive care unit with 10 on ventilators.
“I’m encouraged by the local numbers and the new test positivity rate because that’s been dropping a little bit as well — the total number of patients who are testing positive here, throughout the state of Kansas and nationally is declining, and I really like that because that portends great results,” said Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at the health system.
“The variant will be the wild card for us.”
A variant from the U.K. has been located in at least 20 U.S. states and is said to be about 50% more transmissible. Mutations originating in South Africa and Brazil have also prompted concern. The first U.S. case of the Brazil variant was detected Tuesday in Minnesota, the Associated Press reported. The South Africa variant has not been found in the U.S.
On Wednesday, Kansas reported 272,517 cases including 3,718 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 9.1%.
The state reported that 177,350 doses of the vaccine had been administered, which is 5.1% of the population. A total of 392,875 doses had been distributed with 168,392 administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Numbers vary because of a reporting lag, health officials have said.
Missouri confirmed 452,937 cases including 6,709 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 10.4%.
In Missouri, 374,742 shots had been given, meaning 4.7% of the state’s population had received at least one dose. The CDC said 750,175 doses had been distributed with 358,150 doses administered.
Across the country, more than 25.5 million people have contracted the virus and 427,513 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
