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COVID-19’s fall surge cut a deadly swath through rural Kansas
By the end of the year, rural Kansas counties had actually suffered more deaths proportionally in 2020 than their more densely populated counterparts.
Bringing the COVID-19 vaccine’s ‘life-saving science’ to the Black community
The Black Health Care Coalition in Kansas City hosts virtual meetings to educate the Black community on science behind the COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccines trials need diverse participants to work. Here’s how a Kansas City trial is working with the Latinx community.
To make sure the COVID-19 vaccine will work well for people in Latinx and other communities that have the highest risk of COVID-19 infection, Kansas City’s AstraZeneca vaccine trial is actively recruiting racially diverse volunteers.
This holiday season, Kansas Citians are seeking rent and utility assistance more than food
With the COVID-19 pandemic, more people in the Kansas City area are reaching out for assistance with rent and utility payments than in the past.
‘It’s heartbreaking’ — For grieving families and funeral workers, the pandemic has changed everything
As families struggle with COVID-19 precautions altering how they can safely grieve loved ones, funeral industry workers are facing increased hazards handling infectious bodies and enforcing safety protocols to keep the living alive.
Salons. Grocery stores. Thousands of complaints against Kansas City businesses related to COVID-19.
According to records requested by The Beacon, the city of Kansas City, Missouri, has received over 3,000 complaints about businesses failing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 health orders since March.
How Kansas City metro COVID-19 restrictions compare to each other
With rapidly rising COVID-19 cases and a shortage of staffed hospital beds, most of the Kansas City metro is tightening COVID-19 restrictions.
The COVID-19 positivity test rate is up. More Kansas Citians should get tested, officials say
Despite an increase in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the Kansas City area over the last few weeks, officials say fewer people are using free community testing sites run by health departments. “It’s definitely concerning,” Frank Thompson, deputy director of the Kansas City, Missouri, Health Department, said of the decrease in people getting tested. […]
Older adults in Kansas City are facing increased anxiety, depression during the pandemic
Local organizations that serve seniors are trying to adapt.
Rural Kansas and Missouri face unique challenges with COVID-19
COVID-19 has spread to rural counties in Kansas and Missouri, leading to spikes in cases that weren’t seen in the earliest stages of the pandemic. A combination of factors — population size and distribution, the presence of meatpacking facilities, and COVID-19 outreach programs — is affecting how these areas are responding to the virus. Many high-risk neighborhoods are also more likely to be low-income, immigrant communities, many of whom work in rural Kansas and Missouri meatpacking plants.
In Kansas City, the Latinx community faces extra challenges with COVID-19
In Kansas, Latinx people contract COVID-19 at a rate 5.7 times that of non-Hispanic residents for cases in which ethnicity was reported — 22.9% of cases are missing ethnicity data. Latinx people accounted for almost half of COVID-19 cases in Wyandotte County, where 29.8% of the population is Latinx, for cases where ethnicity data is known. Latinx people also face greater disparities in accessing testing.
‘We’ve seen this trend before’: The deadly disparities of COVID-19 for Kansas City’s Black community
COVID-19 is shining a light on health disparities that the Black community faces, but it isn’t the first disease to do so. In addition to higher rates of COVID-19, Black people in the Kansas City area have access to fewer permanent testing sites than the white population. The health disparities behind increased cases of COVID-19 among the Black community in Kansas City can be traced to several factors.
In testing for COVID-19, Black and Hispanic people in Kansas and Missouri have fewer options
In Kansas City — and similarly across the U.S. — racial and ethnic minorities face worse outcomes and greater disparities when it comes to catching, surviving and being tested for COVID-19. In both Missouri and Kansas, Black people are contracting COVID-19 at rates higher than their share of the state population. On both sides of the state line, Black people are dying at a rate over two times their population share.