How Many Citizens in Escambia County are Dying and Have Died from COVID-19?

Last May, the State of Florida has stopped sending out detailed statistics on deaths from COVID-19 at the County level.  In May and into June--it appeared that the Pandemic was waning, folks were being vaccinated, and things were looking up.

Then starting in early July--the Delta variant ravaged the state and Escambia County.

Our hospitalizations locally from COVID-19 surged to a high of nearly 400 patients. (100 more than the previous surge a year prior)

And folks we know have died and continue to die.  More this past week.  We've lost 4 county Staff members to COVID.

Yet, the state did not resume reporting the deaths by county as the Delta surge took hold.  

So I started asking for the number.  

I asked at least three times at public meetings over a period of 6 weeks.  I asked staff to work with hospitals to get the number--if the state kept stonewalling.  Lots of red tape, lots of explanations about why it couldn't be done.  

But I kept asking.

Yesterday-- late in the afternoon--- Marie Mott from the Dept. of Health in Escambia County sent commissioners some information on the cumulative deaths in Escambia County from COVID-19, along with the following message:

"Attached is a screenshot of the CDC Covid-19 death counts for Escambia County. This number appears to be cumulative, and I have been unsuccessful at using this database tools to filter for specific time periods. It is important to note that these data are displayed by location of death, not residence. Since our local hospitals provide care for residents of several surrounding counties, I suspect that the number shown for Escambia County is inaccurately high. In my effort to investigate this suspicion, I have learned that the Department of Health is working with the CDC to correct this matter. I will continue to update you as I learn more.   Deaths from all causes: 9,266.  Deaths involving COVID-19: 1,079."

This is a start, and I thanked Marie personally for sending the information.

But we really need to see this count, daily, chronologically, over time horizontally,  so we can put this current surge into context which will assist us in perhaps getting more citizens vaccinated locally--or to at least understand the gravity and seriousness of this situation.  I'm staying on it because we deserve this data and the citizens want it.