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Kansas City metro saw 600 more COVID cases in a day. That hasn’t happened since January

The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 3,100 new COVID-19 cases this past week, an increase of 50% from the previous week.

On Tuesday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 603 new cases for a total of 158,196 to date. The metro has not added more than 600 new cases in one day since late January.

Over the past week, the metro added 3,162 more cases. Last week, the area added 2,107 new cases and the week before that, 1,495 new cases were reported.

The seven-day rolling average for new cases rose from 422 on Monday to 452, according to data tracked by The Star. One week ago, the average sat at 301 and two weeks ago, it was 214.

COVID deaths

Fifteen COVID-19 deaths were reported in the past week, raising the metro’s total to 2,324 since the pandemic began.

Thirty-seven patients were hospitalized with the virus at The University of Kansas Health System, up from 34 on Monday. Seventeen were in the intensive care unit with 10 on ventilators.

Physicians at the health system said a lack of vaccination and the delta variant were factors in the rise of cases and hospitalizations, as was the expiration of mask mandates.

“I think at some point, if we’re really going to be able to stem this rise in the delta virus and not continue to be the epicenter for this outbreak, this third wave in the US, we’re going to have to look at those kinds of things and encourage people to get their masks back on,” said chief medical officer Steve Stites.

Mask guidance

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidelines Tuesday, recommending that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas of the country where COVID-19 is surging. As cases spiked, cities including Los Angeles and St. Louis had already revived their mask mandates.

On Tuesday, Kansas reported 328,755 total cases including 5,243 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 8.3%, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said.

The state has administered 2,523,820 vaccine doses, with 41.9% of the population completing inoculation.

Missouri confirmed 559,779 total cases including 9,622 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 14.7%, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Environment.

The state has administered 5,236,987 vaccine doses, with 40.9% of the population completing inoculation.

Across the country, more than 34.5 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 611,171 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.