KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Several Kansas City area school districts are reporting record COVID-19 cases, sparking fears as more schools make masks optional and cases spike among children.
Some districts — such as Shawnee Mission on the Kansas side and Lee’s Summit in Missouri — are seeing their highest case numbers since the school year began in August. And some, such as the Blue Valley district in Johnson County and North Kansas City across the state line, report record numbers of cases since the pandemic began, according to each district’s COVID-19 dashboard.
While COVID numbers fell throughout the Kansas City metro earlier this fall, some districts agreed to ease mask mandates, with many doing so after Thanksgiving break. But now cases are skyrocketing once again, as the highly contagious delta and omicron variants spread, and as vaccination rates continue to lag among children and teenagers.
“Case rates and COVID-19 hospitalizations throughout the metro are increasing rapidly. I know of a few hospitals that are at capacity for ICU beds,” said Charles Cohlmia with the Jackson County Health Department.
In eastern Jackson County, he said, case rates have more than doubled in the last four weeks, particularly among the unvaccinated.
“During the month of November, the highest COVID-19 case rate was in individuals 10-14 years of age and, so far this week, almost 35% of (cases) have been in people under the age of 20,” Cohlmia said. “This, coupled with the fact that our case rate among the unvaccinated population is getting close to 500 cases per 100,000 population (almost four times the case rate for vaccinated people), we can’t stress enough the importance of safety during this holiday season.”
Alex Francisco, public health statistician with the Kansas City health department, said that cases have “increased significantly since Thanksgiving, with a 90% increase in the last week,” rising from 714 cases the week of Nov. 21 to 1,357 last week. The highest case rates are among children and teens.
On the Kansas side, the Johnson County health department on Tuesday reported an incidence rate — the number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past week — of 348 per 100,000. That’s up from 123 on Oct. 7.
“Cases continue to rise. People who are not fully vaccinated, large groups of people gathering inside, and some people not wearing masks could all be factors in rising cases,” said Johnson County health director Sanmi Areola. “Our community is also experiencing a decrease of resources for testing, constraints on the ability of public health to do case investigations and contact tracing, and some who choose not to follow public health isolation processes.”
On Monday, the Shawnee Mission district reported 160 cases among students, beating its previous high this school year of 96 in August. Of those, 110 were among elementary students. Last month, the school board agreed to remove its mask mandate in middle and high schools starting in the beginning of January.
Blue Valley last week reported a record 108 cases among students and staff, the majority of which, 95, were students. That’s the highest weekly case count in the district since the start of the pandemic, according to the district’s data.
Both Blue Valley and Olathe have made masks optional in high schools since students returned from Thanksgiving break. And both of the districts have said that if case numbers reach a certain point in school buildings, they would temporarily bring back mask mandates.
In Olathe, 184 new student cases were reported last week, up from 79 the week before, and beating the district’s previous school-year record of 114 this past summer.
The Johnson County health department continues to have a health order mandating masks in schools that serve students as old as sixth grade.
Kansas City Public Schools reported a lower number, 58 cases among students and staff last week. The Kansas City Council voted last week to extend the mask mandate for schools through the end of the year.
