Count blank cells backwards from yesterday's date

[blemon]

Hi all,
Hope everyone is doing well.
I've tried searching for this solution but it seems more people need to omit blank cells, where I need to count them (and I am having trouble trying to word exactly what I need )

Here is the scenario:
I have a pivot table, in the rows I have names, and in the columns I have the day of the week (Sept 1-19 for example today). In those columns there are hours. I need to be able to count how many blank cells up until the report date to share how many days there have been no shows. So for example, if they didn't show up from the 13th-18th, I need a formula that would spit out how many days that is.

I've used =COUNTBLANK(XLOOKUP($A$2,$C$25:$T$25,$C26:$T26)) and it is able to tell me that the date in question is blank, but I can't figure out how to make it count the previous blank cells if there are any.
($A$2 is the date, C-T date ranges and data)

I hope this makes sense because as I said, I struggle to articulate what I need.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Peter_SSs]

• I suggest that you update your Account details (or click your user name at the top right of the forum) so helpers always know what Excel version(s) & platform(s) you are using as the best solution often varies by version. (Don’t forget to scroll down & ‘Save’)
  
  
• Can you give us some dummy sample data with XL2BB so that we have something to test with and explain what you want in relation to that sample data?