Kansas City metro sees more than 50 new coronavirus cases Monday, four more deaths
The Kansas City metropolitan area recorded more than 50 additional cases of the new coronavirus on Monday and at least four new deaths.
The deaths were reported in Wyandotte County, which has been the hardest hit in the area with 337 cases and 28 deaths, according to county data.
The largest COVID-19 outbreak in Kansas is focused at Riverbend Post Acute Rehabilitation Center in Kansas City, Kansas, where at least a dozen residents have died since the first fatality linked to the facility occurred on April 5.
In neighboring Johnson County, which has the second highest number of cases in the state, there have been 14 deaths and 309 cases as of Monday afternoon.
On the Missouri side of the metro, there were 329 cases in Kansas City, 223 in Jackson County, 51 in Clay County and 25 in Platte County.
The African American population accounted for 44% of the cases in Kansas City, according to new demographic data from the Kansas City Health Department. Whites made up 35% of the cases, Hispanics were 12% and Asians represented nearly 3%.
The total number of cases Monday in the Kansas City metro area sat at 1,274, including 56 deaths.
One month ago, there were seven cases.
The University of Kansas Health System said its numbers appeared stable over the weekend with 31 patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
“But we currently have almost have half of those in the ICU, so that’s actually not good, especially if it’s taking a trend towards the more critically ill patients,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infectious prevention and control.
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, said testing abilities should become more robust by early June.
More than 13,500 tests have been conducted in Kansas, while more than 45,000 tests have been administered in Missouri.
Kansas reported 1,376 positive cases on Monday. Missouri said it has identified 4,388 cases.
The Kansas City area hasn’t seen a rapid rise in cases like the St. Louis area, but Stites likened the trajectory of the virus to a baseball game.
“We’re out of the first inning, we’re still behind the score, but we’re not way behind like some areas of the country are or regions of the world,” he said. “But I would say we’re still in the second inning, maybe getting into the third. But we got a long ways to go, a lot of baseball to play.”
Nationwide more than 572,000 people have been infected with the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
