Children’s Mercy in Kansas City hits capacity as COVID cases continue rising in metro
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Kansas City COVID-19 news
As the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus surges across the Kansas City region, officials, hospitals and communities have had to react. Here is our latest coverage.
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As COVID-19 cases in the Kansas City metropolitan area continue to rise, Children’s Mercy said Monday that its hospital has reached capacity.
The hospital is full because of COVID and other childhood diseases, said Dr. Barbara Pahud, director of research, infectious diseases.
“We do have more COVID cases in the younger population that is not able to get vaccinated,” she said during The University of Kansas Health System’s daily briefing. “But also when we decided to lift the mask policies because we have now vaccines available, in addition to COVID being able to spread, all these other childhood diseases can start spreading as well.”
That includes respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, which typically crops up in the colder months.
Kansas City metro
On Monday, the Kansas City metro added 424 new COVID-19 cases, for a total of 157,593 since the pandemic began. The seven-day rolling average for new cases rose from 411 on Sunday to 422. The average has not been this high since Feb. 4, according to data tracked by The Star.
COVID-19 is impacting young adults who have chosen not to get inoculated and children under age 12, who are not eligible for the vaccine, Pahud said.
“The pool of people that is susceptible has changed so they’re the ones that are getting it now,” she said.
She supports reinstating a mask mandate.
“I know that it’s not a popular choice, but it’s the right choice to save lives,” she said.
Summer camps
Pahud noted that summer camps have been super spreader events, and said as schools reopen next month, it will be important to vaccinate those eligible, wear masks and practice social distancing. If proper measures are not taken, she said, “We are going to see problems. We’re going to see children land in the hospital and that’s the last thing we want to do.”
Hospitals in the Kansas City metropolitan area have seen an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the past couple of weeks.
The University of Kansas Health System had 34 virus patients on Monday, up from 33 on Friday. Sixteen were in the intensive care unit with nine on ventilators.
“That’s really a high proportion of very, very sick people in our hospital,” said Dr. Nathan Bahr, an infectious disease physician at the health system.
The Saint Luke’s Health System said Friday it had more than twice as many COVID-19 patients compared to one month ago.
This story was originally published July 26, 2021 at 3:35 PM.
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