Coping with COVID: Kansas and Missouri update

National data shows that 34 states in the U.S. are seeing a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19, though both Kansas and Missouri remain in the other 16 states where the virus has not slowed to levels below sustained growth.

The good news, according to the data analytics pros at the website rt.live, is that in 34 states, the spread of the COVID-19 virus had slowed to levels below sustained growth as of Tuesday.

The bad news? Missouri and Kansas were still among the other 16. Missouri, in fact, is fifth nationally in the rate of spread, measured as any reading above 1.0 on the scale of transmission rates known as Rt.

Below that level, the viral spread is receding, the site operators say, but Missouri, at 1.10, has a way to go to get back to that point, which it hasn’t seen since May 14.

Kansas is tied for 12th with Nevada, with a rate of 1.01, trending closer to the line that shows the virus in decline. It was last below 1.0 on May 26.

Among the states hardest hit over the past month, California, Arizona, Florida and Georgia have all fallen well below the 1.0 threshold. Texas, however, is still locked in a struggle to bring its rate down from 1.13, which places it third behind No. 1 Hawaii (1.40) and South Dakota (1.20).