Drive-thru and mobile testing shows COVID-19 spread has been mitigated

The analysis of COVID-19 of  the mobile and drive-thru testing sites of Sacred Heart appears to show the virus hasn’t spread much to the general population in Escambia County.  I use the word “appears” because DOH Escambia and Escambia County haven’t given any analysis of data. In fact, we only got this data because of a public record request we submitted last week.

The secrecy surrounding the testing data is frustrating because the numbers are reassuring as we reopen local businesses.

Sacred Heart has had a 6.1% positive rate for Escambia County residents using its drive-thru facility. The people tested had to pass a pre-screening process to be allowed to have specimens collected.  The rate for the nursing homes was 3 percentage points higher.

Community Health placed its mobile testing unit at four sites in Escambia County. No pre-screening was required. The positive percentages ranged from 3.2% to 1%. The testing was done more than two weeks after Gov. DeSantis issued his safe-at-home order.

We may have a baseline against which we can measure the general population in mid- and late June, as the restrictions are relaxed.

  Sacred Heart Escambia
# of Samples Collected – Drive-through 2916
# Resulted Negative – Drive-through 2702
# Resulted Positive – Drive-through 177
# Pending Resulting – Drive-through 37
Positive Rate 6.1%
Samples Collected – 7 Nursing Homes 1214
# Resulted Negative – Nursing Homes 1090
# Resulted Positive – Nursing Homes 109
# Pending – Nursing Homes 15
Positive Rate – Nursing Homes only 9.0%
Community Health
Attucks Court 4/22/20 Escambia
# of Samples Collected 255
# Resulted Negative 245
# Resulted Positive 8
# Inconclusive/Pending 2
Positive Rate 3.2%
Morris Court 4/24/20
# of Samples Collected 150
# Resulted Negative 147
# Resulted Positive 3
# Inconclusive/Pending 0
Positive Rate 2.0%
Carver Park 4/27/2020
# of Samples Collected 305
# Resulted Negative 301
# Resulted Positive 3
# Inconclusive/Pending 1
Positive Rate 1.0%
Gonzalez 5/6/2020
# of Samples Collected 85
# Resulted Negative 84
# Resulted Positive 1
# Inconclusive/Pending 0
Positive Rate 1.2%

Meanwhile Escambia County had 12 more COVID-19 cases reported today, and one more death. DOH Escambia entered 677 new test results – 1.8% positive rate.

5/18/20 5/19/20
11 a.m. 11 a.m. Increase
Total Cases 46442 46944 502 1.08%
Florida Residents 45208 45684 476 1.05%
Non-Fla. 1234 1260 26 2.11%
Deaths 1997 2052 55 2.75%
Escambia 707 719 12 1.70%
Okaloosa 178 180 2 1.12%
Santa Rosa 185 186 1 0.54%
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