KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced that an additional 153 previously unreported deaths linked to the coronavirus will be added to statewide data tracking. The deaths go as far back as January.
Each week, the health department's Bureau of Vital Records analyzes death certificates to report the total numbers of people killed as a result of the coronavirus.
The 153 additional deaths announced Monday night had not previously been reported to the state, according to a news release Monday evening. They will be added to the department's statewide data dashboard on Tuesday afternoon.
The majority of the deaths occurred in December, with 117; 33 were reported from November; two from October and one from January.
Earlier this month, the health department also announced that an additional 114 previously undisclosed deaths going as far back as August were added to the total count.
The death toll for Missouri now stands at 12,970 since the pandemic began. (This number does not yet include the 153 previously unreported deaths.)
There have been nearly 52.8 million cases and more than 818,000 deaths across the country, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Cases of COVID-19 have been resurging recently since the omicron strain, a highly contagious variant, has made its way to the Kansas City metro area.
On Thursday, with Kansas City in the midst of another COVID-19 wave, 1,600 new COVID-19 cases were reported across the metro. The spike marks one of the largest single-day increases since The Star began recording case numbers in early March 2020.
The state health department continues urging people to wear masks in public, wash their hands often and maintain social distancing.
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(The Star's Bill Lukitsch contributed.)
