Kansas City, MO - Are we still in a first wave of coronavirus? Or have we begun a second wave? It depends on where you live, says KCMO's health director.
“There’s no question in Kansas City, Missouri we are clearly in the second wave," says Dr. Rex Archer. "We have equaled our cases back at the first of April, because we took precautions early in March to protect folks.”
Nationally, we've not seen the backside of a 'first' wave, no substantial drop of the number of cases found by expanding testing to indicate the wave has passed.
The real news today is that the U.S. set a record for new cases today: 38,672.The previous record was April 25 at 36,001. pic.twitter.com/pcFcLUeeKk
— The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) June 24, 2020
Mandating mask wearing by law, he says, would have saved thousands of lives.
“If we had done this nationwide in this country, we probably could have saved at least 90 percent of the deaths that occurred," says Archer. “I feel responsible for not having been able to convey why this is dangerous at this time.”
Archer believes Missouri and Kansas should still mandate the wearing of masks in public to help control the spread of the virus.
“Any place where anybody is within six feet of another person, both people need to be masked, in order to protect against the spread of disease," he says.
On the other side of stateline, health officials say contact tracing is more important than ever.
Dr. Sanmi Areola, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment, says the Metro needs more tracers.
Check out the latest JoCo on the Go podcast episode! COVID-19 cases are increasing. Hear from our public health experts. @JOCOHealth#COVID19 https://t.co/okBXfWGAzW pic.twitter.com/QviEB7mB5m
— Johnson County, Kan. (@jocogov) June 24, 2020
Areola says health departments are pulling workers from other departments to help conduct contact tracing.
He also says if you are infected give as much information as possible. The more information you give, the easier it will be to slow the spread of the virus.
