Kansas City area adds more than 2,100 COVID cases in past week, daily average above 300
The Kansas City metropolitan area has added more than 2,100 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths in the past week.
On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 393 new cases for a total of 155,034 to date. Over the past week, the metro added 2,107 new cases. Last week, the area added 1,495 new cases and the week before that, 786 new cases were reported.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 301, according to data tracked by The Star. One week ago, the average was 214 and two weeks ago, it sat at 112.
The metro added 19 deaths in the past week, raising the total to 2,309 since the pandemic began.
At 52.9%, Johnson County is the only jurisdiction in the metro with more than half its residents fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is followed by Platte County at 40.8%, Jackson County at 39.3%, Clay County at 38.5% and Wyandotte County at 35.7%.
Thirty-three patients were being treated for the virus at The University of Kansas Health System, down from 38 on Monday. Nine patients were in the intensive care unit with five on ventilators.
Nathan Bahr, an infectious diseases doctor at the health system, said most of the patients were not vaccinated. Patients who were vaccinated had preexisting health conditions. He encouraged people to get vaccinated.
“If you’re looking out for your risk, get vaccinated,” Bahr said. “This is not just about our own risks, this is about our neighbors’ risk, our loved ones’ risk and somebody we’ve never met’s risk and we should care about all those people, and so us getting vaccinated helps protect all those people.”
On Tuesday, Kansas confirmed 324,187 total cases including 5,198 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 7.6%.
The state has administered 2,404,799 vaccine doses with 45.4% of the population initiating immunization.
Missouri identified 546,962 total cases including 9,518 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 13.7%.
The state has administered 5,138,769 vaccine doses with 46.3% of the population initiating vaccination.
Across the country, more than 34.1 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 609,377 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
