‘This is so preventable’: COVID cases and hospitalizations are up in Kansas City area

The number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continues to rise in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The University of Kansas Health System had 37 patients being treated for the virus, up from 29 on Wednesday. Nine patients were in the intensive care unit with four on ventilators.

“In the metro area, it’s starting to get concerning,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control.

On Thursday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 438 new cases for a total of 153,640 to date. The metro has not added more than 400 daily cases since February 4.

The seven-day rolling average for new cases rose to 265, according to data tracked by The Star. The average has not been this high since Feb. 10. One week ago, the average sat at 125 and two weeks ago, it was 91.

The spike in cases has been attributed to the delta variant, loosened restrictions and low vaccination rates.

Most of the patients hospitalized at The University of Kansas Health System were unvaccinated.

“The vast majority of these people that are in the hospital right now are unvaccinated,” Hawkinson said. “It’s a tragedy because this is so preventable.”

Six patients had been vaccinated, but all of them had significant comorbidities like cancer, diabetes or heart disease.

Hawkinson said other hospitals in the metro are also seeing an uptick in cases.

“We do have frustration, because we know that these vaccines right now continue to be a miracle of modern science and medicine,” Hawkinson said. “To have these vaccines, which elicit very good immune responses to all the variants that we have seen, they are lifesaving and preventive measures that people still don’t want to take for one reason or another.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2021 at 3:52 PM.