KANSAS CITY (AP) — The Kansas City area over the past week recorded its highest number of deaths over a one-week period, with more than 80 people dying from COVID-19.
Missouri is among several states across the U.S. seeing a spike in confirmed cases and hospitalizations related to the coronavirus. The state health department on Tuesday announced 1,695 additional confirmed cases and 28 more deaths. The state has reported 172,717 cases and 2,838 deaths since the pandemic began.
Hospitalizations statewide remain high, with 1,407 people in Missouri hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 illnesses as of Saturday, the most recent date available.
Kansas City along with Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has recorded 735 deaths since the pandemic began. But The most recent seven-day period was the most deadly.
The health department reported 81 deaths for the period of Oct. 20-26, and 163 deaths since the start of October.
“We are now what looks like moving into our third wave of this outbreak and that’s very, very concerning,” said Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City Health Department. “We’re very concerned about this surge and as we move more and more indoors, this is going to become even more problematic.”