Kansas City metro recording an average of 513 new COVID cases, 12 deaths every day
The Kansas City metropolitan area is averaging more than 500 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths per day.
On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 412 new cases for a total of 188,369 to date.
The seven-day rolling average for daily cases sits at 513, according to data tracked by The Star. One week ago, the average was 489. Two weeks ago, it was 624.
Over the past week, the metro added 3,591 more cases. Last week, the area gained 3,421 new cases and the week before, 4,367 were recorded.
The metro added 90 deaths in the past week, raising the total to 2,685 since the pandemic began.
The University of Kansas Health System had 38 patients hospitalized for the virus, down from 40 on Monday. Thirteen were in the intensive care unit.
The hospital has had eight deaths since Saturday, for a total of 30 deaths so far this month. During September 2020, the hospital recorded 17 total deaths.
“It’s very unfortunate,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the health system. “A lot of this is so preventable. We just need to continue to endorse the message of please go get your vaccines. Even if you’ve had COVID in the past, the recommendation is continue to get vaccination. Vaccination will help your body develop that immune response to all of the variants.”
On Tuesday, Kansas reported 390,031 total cases including 5,773 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 9.2%.
Forty-five percent of the state has been fully vaccinated.
Missouri identified 653,474 total cases including 11,010 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 11.1%.
The state has fully vaccinated 46.4% of the population.
Across the country, more than 41.2 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 662,577 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
