Last week, the Kansas City metro averaged 112 new COVID cases per day. Now it’s 214

The Kansas City metropolitan area added nearly 400 new COVID-19 cases, the highest jump in daily cases since February 4.

On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 396 new cases for a total of 152,927 to date. Over the past week, the metro added 1,495 new cases. Last week, the area added 786 new cases and the week before that, 582 new cases were identified.

The seven-day rolling average for new cases rose to 214, according to data tracked by The Star. The average has not been this high since Feb. 13. One week ago, the average sat at 112 and two weeks ago, it was 83.

The metro added 19 COVID-19 deaths in the past week, raising the total to 2,290 since the pandemic began.

A few weeks ago, The University of Kansas Health System had five patients being treated for COVID-19. The hospital had 28 patients on Tuesday.

“The numbers are creeping up unfortunately,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. “Currently at the hospital, we don’t have any capacity issues as far as nursing, respiratory therapists. We don’t have any capacity issues as far as ventilators or vital drugs or therapeutics, but we’re always at the ready. We know what is happening in other parts of the nation and other parts of our region.”

On Tuesday, Missouri identified 536,427 total cases including 9,440 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 12.2%.

The state has administered 5,056,125 vaccine doses with 45.4% of the population initiating vaccination.

Kansas confirmed 321,109 total cases including 5,188 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 7.1%.

The state has administered 2,376,825 vaccine doses with 44.9% of the population initiating vaccination.

Across the country, more than 33.8 million people have contracted the virus and 607,523 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4312

Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.