Kansas City metro area health officials are grappling with how to handle continuing case number increases after reopening businesses more than a month ago.What you need to know:The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Friday the state has 30,638 cases confirmed cases of COVID-19, and there have been 380 deaths since the outbreak started. Kansas is now only updating COVID-19 data on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Friday 1,301 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 in the state and there are 57,379 confirmed cases since the outbreak started.SATURDAY8:40 p.m. -- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said that due to technology upgrades in process internally, the update for Aug. 8 has been delayed.FRIDAY3:15 p.m. -- An 18-year-old Kansas teen died from COVID-19 earlier this summer, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment revealed on Friday. It was the youngest death the state has seen since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.The death was reported on Friday even though the death occurred earlier this summer. According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the department was reviewing death certificates and saw that COVID-19 was listed on the certificate. The teen had underlying health conditions.Previously, the youngest person to die from the virus in the state was 20.2:30 p.m. -- The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported an increase of 921 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its first update since Wednesday to push the statewide total to 30,638 since the outbreak started. DHE officials said the death total grew by 12 on Friday to 380, and the average median age of the deaths is 78.Health officials said Friday that 1,821 (+54) patients have been hospitalized since the start of the outbreak, 526 (+10) were admitted to the ICU, 193 (+3) required mechanical ventilation and 1,293 (+39) patients have been discharged. The state also said it has 38% of its ICU beds available and 85% of its ventilators available.The state said it has tested 316,512 people with 285,874 negative test results, an overall positive test rate of 9.7%, and it is testing 108.64 per 1,000 people in Kansas.[ KANSAS COVID-19 COVID-19 DASHBOARD ]Johnson County continues to have the most confirmed cases in Kansas. Johnson County has 5,637 and Wyandotte County has 4,961.Sedgwick County – where Wichita is located – is the county with the third most cases with 4,935. Leavenworth County – home to Lansing Correctional Facility – has 1,487 cases, and Douglas County now reports 717.Health officials said the median age of people with COVID-19 is 37, and they are monitoring 150 (+5) active clusters, including 47 at private businesses, 43 at long-term care facilities and 21 related to large gatherings.The state of Kansas isn’t officially listing the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19, but local health departments across the state are keeping track. According to numbers from Friday afternoon, there have been 18,214 people who have recovered from the coronavirus.2:15 p.m. -- A person attending Kansas Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate Amanda Adkins’ victory party Tuesday night has tested positive for COVID-19, her campaign said Friday. “The individual was wearing a mask at the event and is asymptomatic,” the campaign said in a release. READ MORE2:12 p.m. -- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 996 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the statewide total to 57,379 since the start of the outbreak.There have now been 1,301 deaths across Missouri from COVID-19, which is up 21 from Thursday's report.Health officials said 930 patients have been hospitalized due to COVID-19. Due to a change in data measures and the reporting platform issued by the White House on July 13, data on hospitalization reflects a 72-hour delay.The state of Missouri does not list how many people have recovered from COVID-19.[ MISSOURI COVID-19 DASHBOARD ]The state said it has tested a total of 752,740 people through PCR testing – a test that looks for the virus in the nose, throat or other areas of the respiratory tract to determine if there is an active infection – and 7.4% of those were positive. The seven-day percent positive of PCR tested individuals is 10.7%The state said it has tested 61,708 through serology testing – a test that looks for antibodies in the blood – and 3.8% of those were positive.The DHSS reports 6,476 (+111) confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kansas City, Missouri, while Jackson County now has 3,909 (+99) cases since the outbreak started. Health officials said there have been 61 (+3) deaths in Kansas City, and Jackson County reports 53 (+1) total.The state also lists 1,011 (+27) total cases in Clay County (outside of Kansas City), 705 (+13) in Cass County and 343 (+5) in Platte County.1 p.m. -- A spokesman says Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has tested negative for the coronavirus after being in a public meeting last month with a legislative leader who’d been hospitalized. Spokesman Sam Coleman said Kelly was tested Friday morning. She decided to get tested after House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. disclosed in an email to fellow GOP House members that he’d tested positive for the coronavirus on July 13. Ryckman said he was hospitalized for about a week was cleared by a doctor to stop isolating, allowing him to go to the July 29 Statehouse meeting. Kelly called his decision “reckless and dangerous.”8 a.m. -- Johnson County reported Friday morning 5,522 (+83) positive cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started. The county said it has 3,094 presumed recoveries and 102 (+0) people have died since the start of the outbreak. It also has tested 79,964 people with 75,661 negative tests for an overall positive test rate of 7%. The county said it has tested 132.7 people per 1,000 in the county. The county said it is monitoring 14 outbreaks at senior living care facilities, which is seven since Thursday. Johnson County health officials lost access to hospital bed utilization in June and has not reported those numbers since June 19.7:45 a.m. -- Wyandotte County is reporting 4,741 (+61) confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started, with 42 (+0) patients currently hospitalized and 103 (-1) probable cases. The county said 98 (+0) people have died from the coronavirus since the start of the outbreak, and 1,306 people are presumed recovered. The 66102 ZIP code is the most impacted area of the county with 1,279 cases, followed by the 66104 ZIP code with 788 and 66106 with 579. 7:30 a.m. -- The state of Kansas isn’t officially listing the number of people that have recovered from COVID-19, but local health departments across the state are keeping track. According to numbers from Friday morning, there have been 18,064 people that have recovered from the coronavirus. This includes 1,299 in Wyandotte County, 2,964 in Johnson County, 1,309 in Leavenworth County and 604 in Douglas County. 6:30 a.m. -- All firefighters in a small fire district in south St. Louis County are quarantined at home after a firefighter tested positive for COVID-19 as a precaution, a district official said Thursday. The 27 firefighters and one administrative assistant in the Lemay Fire Protection District were sent home Wednesday, said Jerry Schloss, chairman of the board of directors for the fire district, which has only one fire house.Fire districts from surrounding communities will handle 911 calls the Lemay district normally would have answered, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.Jail officials in Greene County announced Thursday that 31 inmates and five jail staff have tested positive for COVID-19. Greene County began testing after three inmates taken from the jail to Missouri prison tested positive for the virus. Greene County staff has tested 123 inmates out of the 746 inmates, and of those 40 inmates remain in quarantine while awaiting results, the department said in a news release.6 a.m. -- A top Republican legislator in Kansas was hospitalized last month after testing positive for the novel coronavirus and didn't disclose it to colleagues until this week. The state's Democratic governor declared Thursday that she'll get tested because the two of them attended a meeting together after he was hospitalized.Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr.'s delayed acknowledgment of his hospitalization -- in an email to fellow House Republicans after Tuesday's primary -- concerned colleagues, particularly Democrats. Gov. Laura Kelly called his decision to attend a July 29 meeting at the Statehouse “reckless and dangerous.”Ryckman, from the Kansas City area, is the highest-ranking official in Kansas known to have been infected. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma tested positive last month.Ryckman said in an interview that he tested positive on July 13, began showing symptoms that evening and was hospitalized for about a week starting July 16. He said he remained isolated both at home and in the hospital, and was cleared by a doctor to attend the State Finance Council meeting on July 29. The governor and eight top legislative leaders make up the council, and state law has required it to review orders from Kelly to deal with the pandemic. “I was hospitalized, have followed doctor’s orders and self-isolated during that time,” Ryckman, a Kansas City-area Republican, said in his email to colleagues. “I am now past what doctors consider the contagious stage and am on the road to recovery.”Ryckman's disclosure roiled Kansas politics immediately after it was first reported Thursday by the Sunflower State Journal. Kelly spokesman Sam Coleman said the governor's office “was not aware” of Ryckman's positive test and that Kelly will get tested “as soon as we can set it up.”The governor said she wishes Ryckman good health and is glad he is recovering but added that she was “dismayed” to learn that he'd been infected.“Speaker Ryckman’s decision to attend the State Finance Council meeting after being released from the hospital, while concealing his diagnosis from those of us in the room and taking his mask off, was reckless and dangerous," Kelly said in a statement. “As elected officials, we have a unique responsibility to set the right example for the people of Kansas and to follow the commonsense guidance from medical experts.”Ryckman later accused Kelly in a tweet of “fear mongering and public shaming” and said he’d told people with whom he’d been in contact. He said his personal precautions went beyond state and federal COVID-19 guidelines and that he opted to share his story more broadly later to “help reduce the stigma” faced by people who’ve been infected. Kansas saw its reported coronavirus cases reach nearly 30,000 as of Wednesday after increasing almost 93% in July, according to state health department statistics. The state also is reporting 368 COVID-19-related deaths.The University of Kansas is requiring all students, faculty and staff returning to its campuses in Lawrence and the Kansas City area to take a free COVID-19 test before the fall semester begins Aug. 24, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. Meanwhile, health officials in Wabaunsee County west of Topeka are encouraging anyone who attended the county fair on July 24-27 to monitor themselves for symptoms because one person who attended tested positive.Kelly and Republican lawmakers have been at odds for months over how best to check the spread of the coronavirus, with the GOP preferring to allow local officials make decisions because the number of reported cases per 1,000 residents continues to vary widely. After weeks of complaints that Kelly was moving too slowly to reopen the state's coronavirus-battered economy, she lifted statewide restrictions on businesses and public gatherings on May 26.The state's 105 counties now set the rules and most have opted of a July 2 order from Kelly requiring people to wear masks in public. Also, the Republican-controlled State Board of Education blocked a plan from Kelly to delay the reopening of public and private K-12 schools from mid-August until after Labor Day, leaving the start of fall classes to 286 locally elected school boards.Kansas House Democrats reacted angrily to the news of Ryckman's coronavirus infection, tweeting on their official account that he was “knowingly putting lives at risk.” “Not alerting every member of the House and Senate is indefensible,” they tweeted. “He must be held accountable for his negligence.”And Heather Scanlon, chief of staff for House Democratic Leader Tom Sawyer, sent The Associated Press a July 29 text that said was in response to news from a staffer that Ryckman intended to phone into the finance council meeting. She asked whether Ryckman was doing OK, and the reply was, “Oh, he's doing fine." Scanlon tweeted back, “Oh ok good. I heard he had covid.” She got no reply to that message, she said.Ryckman said he was notified July 10 by phone by that he'd been in contact with someone who might have the virus and began self-isolating. He said that person did not have coronavirus, and his family also did not get infected. As for the House Democrats' criticism of him, he said in a text to The AP that he understands that the unknowns surrounding COVID-19 “make people uncomfortable.”“That's why I listened to my doctor for my medical care and clearance before end(ing) self-isolating,” he said.[ CLICK HERE FOR MAPS OF COVID-19 CASES BY COUNTY IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ][ TRACKING COVID-19 CURVE OF CASES, DEATHS IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ]THURSDAY3 p.m. -- All students, faculty and staff returning to University of Kansas campuses in Lawrence and Overland Park will be required to take a free COVID-19 test, Chancellor Douglas Girod said. READ MORE2:45 p.m. -- In Wabaunsee County, Kansas, health officials are urging anyone who attended the county fair in Alma between July 24 and 27 to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19. The health department said at least one person who attended the fair tested positive for the virus, and that person attended several events, including the rodeo, lawn chair concert, parade and a feed.2:20 p.m. -- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 1,062 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 56,383 since the start of the outbreak.There have now been 1,280 deaths across Missouri from COVID-19, which is up seven from Wednesday’s report.Health officials said 477 patients have been hospitalized due to COVID-19. Due to a change in data measures and the reporting platform issued by the White House on July 13, data on hospitalization reflects a 72-hour delay.The state of Missouri does not list how many people have recovered from COVID-19.[ MISSOURI COVID-19 DASHBOARD ]The state said it has tested a total of 742,311 people through PCR testing – a test that looks for the virus in the nose, throat or other areas of the respiratory tract to determine if there is an active infection – and 7.3% of those were positive. The seven-day percent positive of PCR tested individuals is 10.6%The state said it has tested 61,253 through serology testing – a test that looks for antibodies in the blood – and 3.7% of those were positive.The DHSS reports 6,365 (+97) confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kansas City, Missouri, while Jackson County now has 3,810 (+97) cases since the outbreak started. Health officials said there have been 58 (+1) deaths in Kansas City, and Jackson County reports 52 (+1) total.The state also lists 984 (+10) total cases in Clay County (outside of Kansas City), 692 (+13) in Cass County and 338 (+6) in Platte County.Noon -- Organizers for a favorite Kansas City-metro area family attraction say because of the coronavirus, it’s not safe for them to open this year. The Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead in Overland Park, Kansas, announced online Thursday that the farmstead will not open its doors to the public in 2020. READ MORE10:30 a.m. -- President Donald Trump is still trying to overturn “Obamacare,” but his predecessor's health care law keeps gaining ground in places where it was once unwelcome.Missouri voters this week approved Medicaid expansion by a 53% to 47% margin, making the conservative state the seventh to do so under Trump. The Republican president readily carried Missouri in 2016, but the Medicaid vote comes as more people have been losing workplace health insurance in a treacherous coronavirus economy. READ MORE9:45 a.m. -- According to multiple reports, Kansas City Chiefs rookie offensive lineman Lucas Niang has opted out of the 2020 season due to the coronavirus. Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network first reported the news. READ MORE9 a.m. -- The top health official in Kansas says counties that have mask mandates in place have seen a rapid drop in cases, while those that only recommend their use have seen no decrease in cases. Dr. Lee Norman said Wednesday that 15 counties stayed with Gov. Laura Kelly's mask mandate last month while 90 counties abandoned it. He says that the overall statewide the numbers of new cases is favorable, but that the reduction in new cases is entirely in the counties requiring masks."What we've seen through this is that the counties with no mask mandate, there's been no decrease in the number of cases per capita," Norman said.Norman said urban areas naturally put people in closer physical proximity with things like public transit, and he isn’t surprised when he sees trends in those counties go up. “These are the ones that would include things like Wyandotte, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and the like, tend to have more ethnic and racial minorities,” Norman said. “Those are populations of people that have a higher attack rate, that are more likely to be infected by the COVID-19 virus and are more likely to have an unfavorable outcome.”But Norman said it’s clear to him that the counties that don’t have a mask mandate are seeing higher infection rates than they should expect.“Some counties have been the controlled group with no masks and some have been experimental group with masks are worn,” Norman said. “And the experimental group is winning the battle. All of the improvement in the case development comes from those counties wearing masks.”Kansas has a statewide mask order that’s been in place since early July, but counties can opt out if it locally. Norman said the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will continue to study patterns in where new cases are developing.8:30 a.m. -- California has stopped removing or adding to a list of counties facing more restrictions on businesses and schools as it tries to resolve a technical problem with the state’s coronavirus testing database, health officials said Wednesday.The state has recorded a highest-in-the-nation 525,000 positive tests. But California health officials say the true number is even higher. They don’t know how much so until they can add backlogged testing data and fix the problem with the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange, also known as CalREDIE.The incomplete data in the nation’s most populous state has hampered public health officials’ ability to follow up with those who test positive and contact people who have been around them to limit the spread.“Back in February and March when we didn’t have enough testing, I would say we felt blind,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s public health director. “I would say now we’re back to feeling blind. We don’t know how the epidemic is trending.”8 a.m. -- Johnson County reported Thursday morning 5,439 (+119) positive cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started. The county said it has 2,964 presumed recoveries and 102 (+4) people have died since the start of the outbreak. It also has tested 79,131 people with 74,890 negative tests for an overall positive test rate of 6.9%. The county said it has tested 131.4 people per 1,000 in the county. The county said it is monitoring seven outbreaks at senior living care facilities, which is up one from Wednesday. The county reported a new onset at Brighton Gardens of Prairie Village that started on Aug. 4. Johnson County health officials lost access to hospital bed utilization in June and has not reported those numbers since June 19.7:45 a.m. -- Wyandotte County is reporting 4,682 (+56) confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started, with 42 (+0) patients currently hospitalized and 104 (+0) probable cases. The county said 98 (+2) people have died from the coronavirus since the start of the outbreak, and 1,292 people are presumed recovered. The 66102 ZIP code is the most impacted area of the county with 1,267 cases, followed by the 66104 ZIP code with 778 and 66106 with 564. 7:30 a.m. -- The state of Kansas isn’t officially listing the number of people that have recovered from COVID-19, but local health departments across the state are keeping track. According to numbers from Thursday morning, there have been 17,868 people that have recovered from the coronavirus. This includes 1,292 in Wyandotte County, 2,964 in Johnson County, 1,309 in Leavenworth County and 600 in Douglas County. [ CLICK HERE FOR MAPS OF COVID-19 CASES BY COUNTY IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ][ TRACKING COVID-19 CURVE OF CASES, DEATHS IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ]WEDNESDAY9:30 p.m. -- Due to increases in enrollment at the Lawrence Virtual School - LVS, the school district has suspended 2020-2021 LVS registration until current applications can be processed. LVS registration may reopen in the future if space permits. LVS is a charter school serving K-12 families from across the state of Kansas. 4:30 p.m. -- The Clay County Health Department released back-to-school guidance on Wednesday. The Health Department said it is recommending that middle and high school students should not begin school until after Labor Day. READ MORE.3:45 p.m. -- Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman said he is considered about the Kansas State High School Activities Association continuing with a normal schedule for fall sports.“I think it's very unlikely to be successful when you think about multi-million-dollar athletes in the professional ranks, that are not thriving,” Norman said. Norman said that professional athletes are still coming down with COVID-19, despite working out and playing in isolated environments or under strict supervision. He said he worries about what it’s going to be like for teenagers in high schools across the Sunflower State.“We’ve had it across almost every professional team, and every kind of profession, in every kind of sports,” Norman said. “And those people are being handled with kid gloves. Everybody around them is being tested.“They're being treated like the fanciest of racehorses, and they're getting it. I'm really concerned that it will be highly likely that there will be COVID-19, and the sports will have stops and starts, in terms of turn it on, turn it off. I don't have a crystal ball, but I think it's going to be a problem.”3:30 p.m. -- Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said Wednesday that despite steady climbs in coronavirus cases, he believes the state is in a “different place” than it was in March and April.“We know more about the virus, and how it behaves,” Parson said. “And we are better prepared now to respond.”Parson also said it’s important to note that “these recent increases were partially due to the backlog of data at the state level.”“This was a backlog of test results as they were being entered into the state system, and reported out to the public,” Parson said. “I'm happy to report that that backlog has been eliminated as of last Friday. Our team at DHS is back to reporting each day what has come to them in the past, 24 hours.”3 p.m. -- KDHE Secretary Dr. Lee Norman is holding a news conference to discuss the latest updates on the state’s response to COVID-19. Kansas announced 841 new coronavirus since its last update Monday. The state has 29,717 total cases confirmed, with 368 deaths. Gov. Laura Kelly previously said if case numbers continued to worsen after a recent spike that she would be forced to roll the state back into phase 2 of its reopening plan.2:15 p.m. -- The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 1,241 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the statewide total to 55,321 since the start of the outbreak.There have now been 1,273 deaths across Missouri from COVID-19, which is up seven from Tuesday’s report.Health officials said 882 (-7) patients have been hospitalized due to COVID-19. Due to a change in data measures and the reporting platform issued by the White House on July 13, data on hospitalization reflects a 72-hour delay.The state of Missouri does not list how many people have recovered from COVID-19.[ MISSOURI COVID-19 DASHBOARD ]The state said it has tested a total of 730,574 people through PCR testing – a test that looks for the virus in the nose, throat or other areas of the respiratory tract to determine if there is an active infection – and 7.3% of those were positive.The state said it has tested 60,779 through serology testing – a test that looks for antibodies in the blood – and 3.7% of those were positive.The DHSS reports 6,268 (+71) confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kansas City, Missouri, while Jackson County now has 3,713 (+74) cases since the outbreak started. Health officials said there have been 57 (+2) deaths in Kansas City, and Jackson County reports 51 (+0) total.The state also lists 974 (+30) total cases in Clay County (outside of Kansas City), 679 (+6) in Cass County and 332 (+4) in Platte County.2 p.m. -- The Missouri State High School Activities Association said Wednesday that it will allow schools who move into virtual learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak to participate in all activities, including sports.During a virtual meeting of the Board of Directors, MSHSAA granted relief of two bylaws that “allows schools not meeting in-person to participate in MSHSAA activities” for the 2020-2021 school year only. READ MORE12:45 p.m. -- The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported an increase of 841 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in its first update since Monday to push the statewide total to 29,717 since the outbreak started. DHE officials said the death total grew by three on Wednesday to 368, and the average median age of the deaths is 78.Health officials said Wednesday that 1,821 (+39) patients have been hospitalized since the start of the outbreak, 516 (+11) were admitted to the ICU, 190 (+6) required mechanical ventilation and 1,254 (+58) patients have been discharged. The state also said it has 39% of its ICU beds available and 85% of its ventilators available.The state said it has tested 308,718 people with 279,001 negative test results, an overall positive test rate of 9.6%, and it is testing 105.97 per 1,000 people in Kansas.[ KANSAS COVID-19 COVID-19 DASHBOARD ]Johnson County continues to have the most confirmed cases in Kansas. Johnson County has 5,434 and Wyandotte County has 4,811.Sedgwick County – where Wichita is located – is the county with the third most cases with 4,723. Leavenworth County – home to Lansing Correctional Facility – has 1,472 cases, and Douglas County now reports 700.Health officials said the median age of people with COVID-19 is 37, and they are monitoring 145 active clusters, including 44 at private businesses, 45 at long-term care facilities and 21 related to large gatherings.The state of Kansas isn’t officially listing the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19, but local health departments across the state are keeping track. According to numbers from Wednesday afternoon, there have been 17,504 people who have recovered from the coronavirus.12:30 p.m. -- Kansas health officials say nearly a quarter of the state's almost 29,000 coronavirus cases have been linked to cluster sites. That news comes as nearly a dozen school officials in one small southeast Kansas community find themselves infected or in quarantine after a recent leadership retreat in Branson. The Kansas City Star reports that the state Department of Health and Environment identified 360 outbreaks which have infected 7,710 people and led to 243 of the state's 365 COVID-19 deaths. The state’s clusters include 132 at private businesses, 95 at long-term care facilities and 54 from gatherings. In Chanute, Kansas, 11 school administrators who attended the Branson retreat are in quarantine after six of them tested positive for the virus.Noon -- Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said comments he made about fathers being willing to die to send their children back to school amid the coronavirus pandemic are being misinterpreted and overshadow his main message that children need to return to in-person classes this fall.In an interview Monday, Ashcroft, a Republican, told Christian radio station KLFC in Branson, “At some point, we need to just put our heads down and say we’re gonna get through it, and we definitely need to send our kids back to school.”He added that he didn't "know a father alive that wouldn’t risk getting COVID, even risk dying, to make sure that his children had the greatest foundation for success for their life they could have.” READ MORE11:30 a.m. -- Hours after Missouri became the 38th state to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income residents, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly urged lawmakers in her state to do the state thing. “Last night, Missourians voted to join our neighbors in Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma to expand Medicaid coverage,” Kelly said. “Every single Kansas vote must ask themselves why, year after year, Republican leadership in the legislature has blocked expansion.” READ MORE10:30 a.m. -- School districts nationwide puzzling over how to safely educate children during a pandemic have a more immediate challenge -- getting 26 million bus-riding students there in the first place.Few challenges are proving to be more daunting than figuring out how to maintain social distance on school buses. A wide array of strategies have emerged to reduce the health risks but nobody has found a silver bullet. READ MORE10:15 a.m. -- While there are plenty of question marks about the start of the college football season, K-State took to the practice field for workouts. The practices look different with players and coaches wearing masks and plenty of social distancing going on.10 a.m. -- On Wednesday, the University of Connecticut football team announced the cancellation of its 2020 season. "The safety challenges created by COVID-19 place our football student-athletes at an unacceptable level of risk," director of athletics David Benedict said. READ MORE9:30 a.m. -- Chicago students will begin the fall with all-remote instruction, officials said Wednesday as they backed away from tentative plans to have most kids return to the classroom for two days a week. Chicago Public Schools in mid-July unveiled a hybrid plan combining in-person and virtual learning for the fall semester, which begins Sept. 8. At the time, officials said the plan was subject to change depending on families’ feedback and how the coronavirus was faring in the area.On Wednesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot attributed the shift to a recent uptick in confirmed coronavirus cases. The district also said in a statement that a survey of families showed 41% of elementary school parents and 38% of high school parents would not send their children to school buildings. The Chicago Teachers Union also firmly opposed the district’s hybrid proposal and called for virtual instruction to start the year. Union officials argued that it wasn’t possible to keep staff and more than 300,000 students safe in hundreds of schools around the city. The union also took preliminary steps this week toward a strike vote by its members if the district's proposal for in-person instruction went forward.8:30 a.m. -- Johnson County reported Wednesday morning 5,320 (+80) positive cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started. The county said it has 2,833 presumed recoveries and 98 (+0) people have died since the start of the outbreak. It also has tested 78,322 people with 74,165 negative tests for an overall positive test rate of 6.8%. The county said it has tested 130.0 people per 1,000 in the county. The county said it is monitoring six outbreaks at senior living care facilities – the lowest total in months. Johnson County health officials lost access to hospital bed utilization in June and has not reported those numbers since June 19.7:45 a.m. -- Wyandotte County is reporting 4,626 (+35) confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak started, with 42 (+0) patients currently hospitalized and 104 (+0) probable cases. The county said 96 (+0) people have died from the coronavirus since the start of the outbreak, and 1,266 people are presumed recovered. The 66102 ZIP code is the most impacted area of the county with 1,250 cases, followed by the 66104 ZIP code with 770 and 66106 with 560. 7:30 a.m. -- The state of Kansas isn’t officially listing the number of people that have recovered from COVID-19, but local health departments across the state are keeping track. According to numbers from Wednesday morning, there have been 17,476 people that have recovered from the coronavirus. This includes 1,266 in Wyandotte County, 2,833 in Johnson County, 1,303 in Leavenworth County and 593 in Douglas County. [ CLICK HERE FOR MAPS OF COVID-19 CASES BY COUNTY IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ][ TRACKING COVID-19 CURVE OF CASES, DEATHS IN KANSAS & MISSOURI ]The Associated Press contributed to this story.