COVID news: Vaccine threshold, Garth Brooks show, Missouri vaccine prizes
Here’s the latest on COVID-19 in the Kansas City region:
‘High rate of spread’
On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 621 new cases for a total of 167,664 to date.
Over the past week, the metro added 5,145 more cases. Last week, the area added 4,323 new cases and the week before that, 3,162 new cases were reported.
The metro is averaging more than five COVID-19 deaths per day. A total of 2,391 people have died from the virus since the pandemic began.
Juliann Van Liew, director of the Unified Government’s health department in Kansas City, Kansas, appeared on the health system’s briefing on Tuesday. Last week, officials in Wyandotte County mandated masks be worn indoors in public places.
“In Wyandotte County unfortunately, we’re just seeing uncontrolled community spread,” she said. “CDC has deemed us a high rate of spread across the county as it has most of the counties in the broader metro region. And so we’re just really concerned about the fact that even though people are coming in to be vaccinated in small numbers, that pays off in two to four weeks when they reach that immune response from that vaccine. What masks do is offer us an opportunity to intervene right now, here today.”
Key vaccination threshold months away for Kansas, Missouri
An analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination data by The Star suggests it will be months before 70% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine in both Kansas and Missouri.
Kansas could take 128 days and Missouri 141 days to reach what has previously been thought to be a possible herd immunity threshold, based on the average daily number of first doses in late July.
According to a separate analysis from American Public Media Research Lab, Kansas won’t achieve a 70% vaccination rate until November and Missouri won’t reach the same level until February.
Enjoy that Garth Brooks show? Might have to quarantine
Unvaccinated Kansas residents who attended the Garth Brooks concert Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium — where tens of thousands of people showed, many without masks on — need to quarantine, according to the state’s travel quarantine list.
Kansas residents who went to the concert and are not fully vaccinated will have to quarantine for seven days with a negative test result or 10 days without testing after the event if they go to their state, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Fully vaccinated people who are asymptomatic since the event will not have to quarantine.
Got a shot? Win a $10,000 prize
Missouri will hold the first of five prize drawings on Friday as part of its new statewide vaccine incentive program.
Prizes are to be awarded to 180 people, adults and children ages 12 to 17, following the first drawing, which requires state residents to be receiving the vaccine to participate. Announcements of the first winners will be made on Aug. 25 after each person’s vaccination status has been certified by the state, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Eligible participants are state residents who have received at least one dose of the vaccine. A maximum prize of $10,000 cash is on the table for adults and residents ages 12 to 17 may receive a $10,000 contribution to a state-run savings account for post-high school education.
The Star’s Katie Bernard, Jonathan Shorman, Jeanne Kuang, Angela Cordoba Perez and Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 7:18 AM.