Kansas City COVID cases, hospitalizations going down, but CDC ‘community levels’ rise

COVID-19 cases are down this week in the Kansas City area, but the CDC has upgraded the “community levels” of the virus in some local counties. Johnson County rose from “low” to “medium” while Wyandotte County rose from “medium” to “high” in the past week.

The CDC’s “community levels” are calculated using hospital admission data and hospital bed occupancy, meaning they indicate how much strain the health care system is feeling from COVID-19 patients.

Here’s the latest COVID-19 data in the Kansas City area.

What are the COVID-19 risk levels in the Kansas City area?

Johnson County rose to a “medium” community level of COVID-19 in the past week, joining Clay, Platte and Jackson counties. This classification means that the CDC recommends maintaining good ventilation, getting up to date on your vaccines and boosters, and wearing a mask if you are immunocompromised or indoors with someone who is.

Wyandotte County rose to a “high” community level this week, meaning that healthcare infrastructure is feeling the strain of patients sick with COVID-19.

All the counties that make up the Kansas City metro area remain at “high” transmission levels. This ranking means that your risk of catching COVID-19 in public is elevated due to the robust spread of the virus.

What does Kansas City’s COVID-19 data look like this week?

Local health departments reported 1,440 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, down from an estimated 1,902 per week over the holiday break. That brings the metro’s seven-day average down to around 206 new cases per day, compared to around 272 per day the previous weeks.

Since many people are taking COVID tests at home, which aren’t publicly recorded, experts say real case totals are likely anywhere from two to five times higher than what data shows.

The state of Missouri is no longer reporting death counts at the county level. Johnson County reported eight new deaths since our last update, while Wyandotte County reported three. That brings the Kansas City metro area’s death total up to at least 4,441 since the pandemic began.

How are hospitals holding up?

The University of Kansas Health System is treating 26 patients with active COVID-19 infections, down from 51 patients last week. Six of these patients are in the ICU with two on ventilators, compared to nine ICU patients and three on ventilators last week.

“We are still seeing 350 deaths per day and over 4,000 hospitalizations per day in the United States,” said Dr. Matt Shoemaker, the interim co-director of the infectious diseases division at the University of Kansas Health System. “For that down-slope to continue, we have to get people vaccinated.”

MARC hospitalization data has not been updated since Sunday, Dec. 18, when the greater Kansas City area was seeing an average of 73 new hospitalizations per day. This was slightly lower than the 76 per day the previous week.

“We are currently having trouble accessing updated hospital data. The hub will be updated when new data is made available,” the MARC portal reads.

How vaccinated is the Kansas City area?

Part of Kansas City’s defense against the most active COVID-19 variants are the new bivalent booster shots, which are available at clinics around the metro. These boosters offer protection from both the original COVID-19 and several strains of the omicron variant.

“Only half the population of the United States has received their first booster,” Shoemaker added. “So we have a lot of room to go.”

The vaccine is also thought to be effective against the new XBB lineage. According to 17 researchers who wrote in to the New England Journal of Medicine on Dec. 21, “Persons who received the BA.5-containing bivalent booster had better neutralizing activity against all omicron subvariants (especially against BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, and XBB) than those who received either one or two monovalent boosters.”

While this new variant is somewhat more evasive to antibodies than prior variants have been, the bivalent booster shot is still thought to provide some protection from the XBB strain.

Anyone who has received an initial COVID-19 vaccination, including children as young as five years old, can now get one of these new shots. They’re available at local health departments, clinics and pharmacies around the metro.

MARC data on local vaccination rates has not been updated since Wednesday, Dec. 21. The data shows that 65.80% of the population is fully vaccinated in the Kansas City region. Eastern Kansas has a higher vaccination rate, at 75.17%, than western Missouri does at 58.82%.

Do you have more questions about staying safe from COVID-19 in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.