KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Health departments in the Kansas City area have issued a joint public health advisory as COVID-19 cases rise across the metro and other parts of the Midwest.
"We're all seeing a pretty significant increase in numbers of cases and numbers of hospitalizations," Frank Thompson, deputy director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, said Friday in an interview with 41 Action News. "Just for Kansas City compared to last month, where we got three times the number of cases per day as last month."
Thompson said the majority of people who've recently contracted the virus or have been hospitalized aren't vaccinated.
"When we spoke with hospital officials in intensive care units, anywhere from up to 99% they're seeing in intensive care units are unvaccinated," he said.
That's why the advisory, issued Friday afternoon, is reminding people to get fully vaccinated, and states that unvaccinated individuals should wear a mask while visiting indoor public places, in crowded settings and for close-contact activities with others who are not fully vaccinated.
It's also reminding people, regardless of vaccination status, to exercise caution.
The health departments from Kansas City, Missouri; Cass, Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Platte and Ray counties; and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas all signed on to the advisory.
"In consultation with area hospitals’ chief medical officers, the region’s public health departments are issuing a public health advisory in response to rapidly increasing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the Kansas City metro related to the emergence of the delta variant," the departments said in a press release.
On Friday morning, the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department tweeted that the number of COVID-19 cases in the first 15 days of July exceed the number of cases in all of June.
In the tweet, the health department encouraged unvaccinated people, those older than 65 and those with chronic health conditions to wear a mask indoors and maintain social distancing.
Since July 1 there have been 800+ new COVID-19 cases in Kansas City -- that's more than all of June.
— KCMO Health Dept (@KCMOHealthDept) July 16, 2021
In the past 30 days, cases have tripled.
PLEASE wear a mask indoors, social distance if you’re not vaccinated, if you have a chronic health condition or if you’re 65+. pic.twitter.com/bMnHyKfX5P
On the Kansas side in Johnson County, the percent positivity of COVID-19 tests now stands at 6.4 percent, the highest rate since February.
