New COVID cases are down in the KC metro, but health officials say keep your guard up
For the first time in four months, the Kansas City metropolitan area added fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 124 coronavirus cases for a total of 134,907 to date.
The metro has not had new cases numbering in the 100s since early October.
The seven-day average for new cases dropped to 297. One week ago, the average sat at 464 and two weeks ago, it was 580. One month ago, it was 880, according to data maintained by The Star.
Two deaths were reported, both in Johnson County, raising the metro’s total to 1,786.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 27 patients being treated for the virus, down three from Friday. Ten patients are in the intensive care unit with five on ventilators.
Though cases and hospitalizations have been steadily declining since mid January, health officials said people still need to keep their guard up.
“You’ve got to continue to mask, continue to be apart from each other when you can,” said Nathan Bahr, infection control physician at the health system.
On Monday, Kansas confirmed 282,960 cases including 4,197 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 5.9%.
The state has distributed 413,350 doses of the vaccine with 303,691 administered, which is 8% of the population.
Missouri reported 466,664 cases including 7,143 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 8%.
The state said 693,468 vaccine doses had been administered, covering 8.7% of the population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the number of administered doses as 643,439 with a total of 961,525 distributed. Numbers vary due to a lag in reporting, health officials have said.
Missouri residents can register for the vaccine through the state’s vaccine navigator, which launched Monday. It can be found at covidvaccine.mo.gov/navigator or by calling 877-435-8411.
Across the country, more than 27 million people have contracted the virus and 464,215 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 3:16 PM.
