Kansas City metro daily average for new COVID-19 cases surpasses peak from summer 2020
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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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During the first COVID-19 surge in the Kansas City metropolitan area, the average for new cases peaked July 30, 2020, at 507. One year later, a new wave of cases surpassed that, even as vaccines have become widely available and free.
On Friday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 907 new cases for a total of 160,339 to date. The last time the metro added more than 900 cases in one day was Jan. 29. Friday’s numbers do not include updated data from Wyandotte County.
The latest rise in numbers has officials at the Kansas City Health Department worried.
“We’ve all but lost the window to really get this under control before kids go back to school,” said deputy director Frank Thompson.
“It’s absolutely critical that we do everything we possibly can as a community to keep kids in school buildings this year and the first part of that is everybody getting vaccinated. The second is everybody wearing a mask when they’re out in public places.”
Over the past week, the metro added 3,791 more cases. The previous week, the area added 2,608 new cases and the week before that, 1,831 new cases were reported.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases has climbed sharply this month. On July 1, it was 91 and on July 15, it was 265. On Friday, it was 542, according to data tracked by The Star.
Cases in the metro peaked overall last winter when the average hit 1,199 on Nov. 22.
Three deaths were added on Friday, raising the metro’s total to 2,333.
Kansas City’s new mask mandate goes into effect Monday.
Thompson urged people to get vaccinated.
“The bottom line is we need help from the public,” he said. “We need folks to go out and get vaccinated and we need folks to start wearing their masks again.”
On Friday, Kansas reported 332,933 total cases including 5,255 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 8.7%.
The state has administered 2,545,828 vaccine doses with 42.2% of the population fully inoculated.
Missouri confirmed 567,751 total cases including 9,650 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 15%.
The state has administered 5,284,847 vaccine doses with 41.2% of the population fully vaccinated.
The U.S. rate is 49.5%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Across the country, more than 34.7 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 612,313 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 3:19 PM.
