Rolling average for new COVID-19 cases in KC metro on slow but steady decline

The Kansas City metropolitan area’s rolling average for daily new COVID-19 cases has fallen to 430.

On Friday, the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 336 new cases for a total of 192,901 to date.

The seven-day rolling average for daily cases sits at 430, according to data tracked by The Star. One week ago, the average was 493. Two weeks ago, it was 470. The most recent surge brought on by the delta variant appears to have peaked on Aug. 14 when the average hit 766.

Over the past week, the metro added 3,010 more cases. During the previous week, the area gained 3,449 new cases and the week before, 3,287 were recorded.

The metro has recorded a total of 2,896 deaths since the pandemic began.

Thirty-two patients were hospitalized for the virus at the University of Kansas Health System, down from 35 on Thursday. Eleven of those patients were in the intensive care unit.

Children’s Mercy had 14 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Since March, the hospital has had about 8,000 patients test positive.

On Friday, Kansas reported 404,459 total cases including 5,981 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 8.5%.

The percentage of the state’s population that has been fully vaccinated is 46.2%.

Missouri identified 669,352 total cases including 11,318 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 9.6%.

Health care workers across the state have fully vaccinated 47.3% of the population.

Across the country, more than 42.7 million people have contracted COVID-19 and 685,389 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.