At the July 16 Escambia County Commission meeting, State Sen. Doug Broxson (R-Gulf Breeze) asked for support of his initiative to have everyone who has recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood or plasma.
“We are currently at war against the coronavirus,” said Broxson. “I want to encourage everyone, who is physically able, to join me in taking the pledge to donate blood or plasma every 60 days during the pandemic.”
He added, “I appreciate all our elected officials and community leaders joining me and leading by example to help win this war.â€
As of July 20, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties have had 7,365 Florida residents that have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the Florida Department of Health, only 2,239 residents of the two counties have been tested for antibodies – of which only 3.75% were positive (84 people).
However, the positivity percentage of the antibody tests did increase last week. For the week ended July 16, 24 people tested positive out of 244 antibody tests – 9.8% positivity.
The antibody testing is lagging far behind the new COVID cases.
| Escambia | Positive | Negative | Total | Positivity |
| 16-Jul | 55 | 1316 | 1371 | 4.01% |
| 9-Jul | 39 | 1175 | 1214 | 3.21% |
| Week testing | 16 | 141 | 157 | 10.2% |
| Santa Rosa | Positive | Negative | Total | Positivity |
| 16-Jul | 29 | 839 | 868 | 3.34% |
| 9-Jul | 21 | 760 | 781 | 3.21% |
| Week testing | 8 | 79 | 87 | 9.2% |
| Combined | Positive | Negative | Total | Positivity |
| 16-Jul | 84 | 2155 | 2239 | 3.75% |
| 9-Jul | 60 | 1935 | 1995 | 3.01% |
| Weekly | ||||
| Combined | 24 | 220 | 244 | 9.8% |