Kansas City Health Department says COVID-19 cases higher than reported

The Kansas City Health Department is warning that COVID-19 numbers are higher than you might think. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the risk in Kansas City is low, but city health officials disagree.COVID-19 cases have been increasing about 15% every week for the past nine weeks.Dr. Alex Francisco crunches COVID-19 numbers for the health department. He said the risk is no longer low, it’s now medium and more precautions are needed.”That’s the reality of the situation here in Kansas City, right now,” Francisco said.This means anyone without their current booster who is age 65 or older, has health factors like obesity or high blood pressure or is immunocompromised, should mask back up.”I just want to make sure that our most vulnerable citizens are aware of what the risks are and can take the precautions necessary to protect themselves and their families,” Francisco said.Francisco looks at new hospitalizations, staffed beds and rising new cases of COVID-19. He said the CDC agrees with his assessment.”They were perfectly happy with us illustrating medium risk despite the fact that their maps might illustrate something different,” Francisco said.He said the data is for Kansas City proper but affects the whole metro.”Really this is an issue of the urban core relative to the more rural areas,” Francisco said.The health department said when numbers go back down, it will be the first to share the news.The Mid-America Regional Council shows that at the start of April, Kansas City was seeing 55 new daily cases. That number is now 322 new cases each day. But that number does not include most at-home rapid test results.