Rate of new virus infections slowing

Panama has slowed the average number of new infections that occur from one case of COVID-19  (the Rt.) which means the country can begin to examine the slow easing of suppression measures.

Ministry of Health (Minsa), Rodrigo DeAntonio, epidemiologist reports that the duplication of cases is now up to 16 days, that is, that there is a slowdown, and the average transmission is by below 1, which is optimal.

The increase in days is encouraging since in epidemiology the ideal is for duplication of cases to be reported for more than 10 days. A week ago, cases doubled every 8 days, and at the start of the outbreak, every 2 or 3.

DeAntonio said that although the country’s total effective reproductive number (Rt) is below 1 (0.95), in regions such as Colón, Panamá Este, and Chiriquí it is still above that value.

He said that it is appropriate to maintain containment measures so that the numbers remain the same for 10 days in a row and to stabilize the behavior of the virus.

The Minister of Health, Rosario Turner, said on  Tuesday they delivered to President, Laurentino Cortizo, the first draft of the strategic plan to begin to lift the mitigation and suppression measures adopted to curb the virus and avoid saturation of hospitals.

However, said  it is important that the measures be lifted gradually to avoid a recurrence of the spread of the disease.