In early April 2022, the states of Missouri and Kansas began recognizing COVID-19 as endemic. Endemic does not mean the end of COVID-19. In public health, the term endemic refers to the constant presence of a disease within a population or geographic area.
Since this shift in status, reporting changes have occurred. Most notable is that negative COVID-19 tests are no longer required to be reported to either state by local health departments. This, along with more at-home testing, has significantly limited our understanding of the volume of testing occurring in the region. Many jurisdictions from which we collect data to support the Kansas City Region COVID-19 Data Hub have stopped reporting tests all together, while others report what they are able to capture while acknowledging the limitations. For this reason, the data hub will no longer display updates to testing numbers. Historical numbers will remain available at this time for retrospective studies.