I have been wondering, since people say death numbers, does that mean I should write "death count" as "death counts"
NOT A TEACHER
Death count is singular, death counts is plural. If you're just referring to one incident, you should use death count, as in:
The death count after last week's earthquake continues to rise.
Not a teacher
If you don't want to puzzle yourself over what form you should use with "death count" and/or you want to sound more sophisticated, you can use the expression "death toll", which is singular.