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I have established this blog as a means of transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

How Many COVID-19 Tests Have Been Conducted in Escambia County to Date?



According to our latest figures provided by staff as of Close of Business (COB) yesterday, the daily breakdown of tests (above) indicates that as a community there has been a total of 2,404 tests for COVID 19 conducted since March 5th.

But here we go with the opaque data........Early last week, the Florida COVID-19 dashboard listed a data point "total tests" in their Escambia County testing information column.

That is now gone, no longer listed.

As of this morning, the state Department of health Dashboard for Escambia County only lists "results" for a total of 446 tests.  (and the positive and negative results now have to be added manually to get the total number of tests administered.)  Nevertheless--this data is wrong.  There is an outstanding delta between the tests we know we have conducted and what is being reported.  And it's a big number, 1,958 tests with no results yet reported.



Where are the results for these other 1,958 tests that have been conducted over the last month in Escambia County?

Why are these results not being shared on the dashboard?

Are the individual patients that have been tested being given their results separately from the DOH?

Are the hospitals sharing results with patients and the DOH in real time, or is there a lag?  Are the hospitals NOT sharing the test results they get back and disclose to patients?  If not, why?

And why are the tests still taking so long to get back from the lab?---------especially since we were told 8 days ago that Sacred Heart Hospital has a 4-hour test capability on site now that can push  a minimum of 50 test results daily out?

Too many questions are going unanswered, and the lack of transparency is feeding insecurity among a lot of people here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is Steven Barry MIA?Not a peep about D5 NADA. No testing locations and what about checkpoints on the northend of the county. Highway 29.and 99?
Note the model for why Germany death rate is lower then Italy. etc.