Uh, numbers show less COVID testing since May 26

For two weeks, Inweekly tried to find out why Escambia County’s COVID-19 cases spiked.  The search hit a roadblock when DOH Escambia PIO Christine Freer wrote the newspaper, “The increase in number of positive cases is a result of Florida’s greatly expanded efforts in testing for COVID-19. As more testing is done, there will be an increase of positive cases of COVID-19.”  Read more.

We wanted more specifics and made a request of the Florida Department of Health of the specimen collections of the three past weeks that would verify testing had increased in Escambia County.

We received this reply yesterday: “Available information related to your request can be found at the following website: https://www.floridadisaster.org/covid19/covid-19-data-reports.”

We reviewed the reports for the past four Tuesdays and calculated the new tests done each week. The weekly tests peaked on May 26 (4,403) according to the reports and the increase in testing began after May 12.

However, since May 26, testing has decreased – 2,481 for the week ending June 2 and 2,728 for the week ending 2,728 – down 29 percent over the past two weeks.