Kansas City metro records 20 more COVID deaths as area adds more than 80 cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 80 new COVID-19 cases and 20 deaths on Tuesday.
The uptick in deaths was in part due to Missouri’s weekly review of death certificates. Statewide, 130 deaths were added.
On the Missouri side of the metro, Kansas City added 11 deaths, Jackson County added three, Clay County added two and Platte County added one.
In Kansas, Johnson County recorded three new deaths while Wyandotte County had zero. A total of 2,049 residents in the metro have died from the virus.
The area gained 87 cases for a total of 139,587 to date.
The seven-day average for new cases increased slightly from 99 on Monday to 101. However it has dropped since one week ago when it was 131, according to data maintained by The Star.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 11 patients hospitalized for the virus, down from 14 on Monday. Two patients, who were both on ventilators, were in the intensive care unit.
Since the pandemic began, the health system has conducted more than 182,000 tests and admitted 2,252 patients. Of those, 644 were admitted to the intensive care unit, 399 required a ventilator and 331 died. The average patient age was 58 and the average length of stay was roughly eight days, said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement. The health system has administered more than 35,000 doses of the vaccine since Dec. 18 when they received the first batch.
“If you think about any one of those numbers individually, they’re staggering — some in a good way, 35,000 doses of the vaccine in not a large amount of time — and some are staggering the other way,” Wild said.
On Tuesday, Missouri confirmed 481,245 cases including 8,295 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 4.3%.
The state has administered 1,572,128 doses of the vaccine, covering 16.8% of the population, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said. The state has received 2,043,505 doses with 1,647,096 administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Numbers vary due to a lag in reporting.
Kansas reported 296,451 cases including 4,816 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 2.9%.
The state has distributed 1,020,380 vaccine doses with 698,670 administered, covering 16% of the population, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.
Across the country, more than 29 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 524,550 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
