‘The numbers are really good’: New cases, hospitalizations down in Kansas City metro
The Kansas City metropolitan area added fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases for the second time this week.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 192 coronavirus cases for a total of 135,887 to date.
The seven-day average for new cases fell to 236. One week ago, the average sat at 334 and two weeks ago it was 585, according to data maintained by The Star.
Three new deaths were added Friday. Two were in Kansas City and one was in Jackson County, raising the metro’s total to 1,850.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 25 patients being treated for the virus, down from 27 on Thursday. Eight are in the intensive care unit with seven on ventilators.
That’s drastically lower than the record high in November, when 102 patients were hospitalized.
“The numbers are really good,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. “I think we’ve been happy now for the past 10 days or so.”
On Friday, Kansas confirmed 286,102 cases including 4,364 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 5.4%.
A total of 572,275 doses of the vaccine have been distributed with 365,180 doses administered, covering 9.4% of the population, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.
Missouri reported a total of 470,107 cases including 7,442 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 7.2%.
The state has administered 801,456 doses of the vaccine, covering 9.7% of the population, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,116,475 doses have been delivered with 717,483 administered. Numbers vary, health officials have said, because of a reporting lag.
Across the country, more than 27.4 million people have contracted the virus and 479,458 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
