IT WAS AN UGLY WEEK FOR COVID-19 IN THE KANSAS CITY REGION AS WELL AS MISSOURI, Kansas and across the United States with record numbers of new cases reported across the board. — It was an ugly week for COVID-19 in the Kansas City region as well as Missouri, Kansas and across the United States with record numbers of new cases reported across the board.
The seven-county Kansas City metro reported 5,845 new cases from Oct. 31 to Nov. 6, an increase of more than 33% from last week’s record of 4,389 new cases, according to the 41 Action News Daily COVID-19 Tracker.
To put that jump in perspective, state and local health departments in the region — Johnson, Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties in Kansas along with Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte counties plus KCMO in Missouri — reported 2,752 new cases from Oct. 17-23. Two weeks later, the number of new cases reported more than doubled.
There have now been nearly 65,000 cases and 900 deaths attributed to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. That includes a record 1,668 new infections reported Friday alone.
Kansas and Missouri also set single-day records Friday with 5,175 and 5,312 news cases, respectively. The Show-Me State has now set a new single-day record four days in a row.
For the sixth straight week, Kansas reported a record number of new cases, topping out at 12,594 during the last seven days — an average of nearly 1,800 per day and an increase of more than 44% from last week’s record tally.
The state also reported a record 137 deaths last week, including a single-day record 79 on Friday.
There have been more than 99,000 cases with 1,166 confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Sunflower State.
Missouri also shattered its single-week record with 23,212 new COVID-19 cases. It’s the second straight record-setting week for the Show-Me State, which saw a whopping 46% increase from the 15,893 cases reported Oct. 24-30.
There were 214 deaths reported in Missouri, which fell shy of the previous week’s record (274).
Nationally, the trend is equally bleak.
After topping out with nearly 465,000 news cases in mid-July, the number of new infections per week dipped below 400,000 throughout August, September and early October. But the tide turned dramatically during the last three weeks.
The U.S. reported more than 434,000 new cases from Oct. 17-23, broke the single -week record with 561,199 new cases last week and shattered that record with 689,859 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days, according to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard.
October was the deadliest month for the pandemic across the Missouri and Kansas region.
The trend may continue during the late fall and into winter as the number of new cases continues to spike across the Kansas City area and throughout its surrounding states.
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