KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Dr. Randall Williams says he has been in contact with Kansas City, Missouri, health officials after the city saw an increase in COVID-19 cases in recent days.
At a press briefing on Thursday with Gov. Mike Parson, Williams said he reached out to KCMO Health Department Director Dr. Rex Archer on Thursday morning after seeing an increase in cases there.
“The reason we’re doing all this testing … is to look for hot spots,” Williams said at the briefing Thursday. “The first thing we noticed is that there’s an increase in the Kansas City area.”
On Wednesday, KCMO reported at least 130 new cases for the third straight day, numbers the city has not seen since May 5-7, according to 41 Action News' data analysis.
Earlier this week, the KCMO Health Department said it had identified a new cluster of cases associated with a manufacturing plant. More than 200 Kansas City residents tested positive for the virus after the outbreak at Aspen Paper Products.
Williams said the spike in Kansas City "may well be" a result of an increase in testing, though he cautioned he also would not assume that.
"The first thing we’ll do is to be asking questions tonight about Kansas City and talk to (Archer) and break that down as to, is there anything there we need to be more vigilant about?" Williams said. “And that’s the whole purpose, to identify areas early so we can get a look at it.”
The entire state saw nearly 300 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, with about one-third of those cases coming from the Kansas City metro area. Parson on Wednesday said as testing has ramped up across the state, he's encouraged by a declining rate of positivity and fewer hospitalizations.
