KANSAS CITY, Mo. — According to doctors, Kansas City, Missouri, is finally on the offense against COVID-19.
Dr. Rex Archer, with the KCMO Health Department, says it's encouraging that Kansas City didn't see a huge uptick in COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving.
"What has happened in other parts of the country that have not had this messaging they've had huge spikes and we have not, so far," Archer said.
Archer believes the constant information the department put out on the news and social media helped prevent a spike in cases following the holiday.
"In December, we have had a 44 percent reduction in the number of people becoming positive in that 20 to 29 year old category," Archer said. "We believe a lot of that is those groups are more often out late at night, when you eat and drink and the mask comes off. We even know that the six foot social distancing is not accurate indoors."
Archer said he believes bars and restaurants closing early has helped too. However, he wants to see more federal funding to keep these businesses afloat.
"The virus can spread anytime but I don't know a lot of people at 8 in the morning that are in a crowded setting with loud music shouting without masks on," Archer said.
Dr. Lee Norman with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says hospitals are seeing numbers leveling off, but there is still a lot of work to do.
"We are far, far from herd immunity so we cannot let our guard down until we have a much significantly higher number of people who are vaccinated," Norman said a morning call with the University of Kansas Health System.
Kyrsten Frickey said her family isn't letting their guard down and are changing the way they celebrate the holiday.
Instead of their annual in-person gingerbread house competition, they're doing it on Zoom.
"It's really important to keep everyone safe even though there's a vaccine," Frickey said. "We can't just still get together, we still have to do our part and stay safe. Even if it means doing creative things to keep everyone together then that's just what you got to do."
Both Archer and Norman stress taking precaution as holidays in December approach.
"What you don't want to do is ruin Thanksgiving in 2021 because you do something now that puts somebody in the hospital or worse," Archer said.
