Kansas City metro surpasses 150,000 COVID cases, adding more than 430 in past week
The Kansas City metropolitan area has recorded more than 150,000 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 62 new cases for a total of 150,064 to date. Over the past week, the metro added 438 new cases. The week before, the area added 368 new cases.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 63, according to data tracked by The Star. One week ago, the average sat at 53 and two weeks ago, it was 73.
The metro added six COVID-19 deaths this past week, for a total of 2,254.
Johnson County leads the metro on vaccinations, with 50.9% of its residents fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is followed by Platte County at 38.7%, Jackson County at 37.1%, Clay County at 36.3% and Wyandotte County at 33.2%.
Fourteen patients were hospitalized for the virus at The University of Kansas Health System, down from 17 on Monday.
Chief medical officer Steve Stites said there are growing concerns about a third wave of cases, noting that Missouri has the highest rate of new infections per capita in the country.
“We’ve opened up society, and we are seeing the rise of this new variant and there are still people who are unvaccinated and those three features are going to cause difficulty,” Stites said. “It’s also not clear whether having had COVID before really protects you against the Delta variant whereas vaccinations do work against the Delta variant.”
According to a New York Times analysis on Monday, over the past 14 days, most states have seen the number of cases decline, but Missouri had a 72% increase.
Missouri counties account for 13 of the top 25 counties in the U.S. with the highest rate of new cases, The Times reported. Most were in rural areas although Joplin was included in that list.
On Tuesday, Missouri identified 519,781 total cases including 9,248 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 6.8%.
The state has administered 4,850985 vaccine doses, with 43.7% of the population initiating vaccination. Missouri has received 6,064,045 doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kansas reported 316,695 total cases including 5,129 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 2.7%.
The state has distributed 2,877,010 vaccine doses. Of those, 2,298,497 have been administered, with 43.7% of the population initiating vaccination.
Across the country, more than 33.5 million people have contracted the virus and 602,241 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 2:37 PM.
