Over 2000 hospitalized with covid-19
Panama reached the record number of more than 2,000 hospitalized, reported the Ministry of Health (Minsa), on December 25, and there are 3,756 deaths from COVID-19 and 226,660 positive cases.
The epidemiological report of the Ministry of Health reports that 11,380 tests were applied on Christmas Day to detect covid-19, which yielded a positivity of 26.2% positivity far distant from the 5% that the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates as an indication or signal of a situation of “control” of the pandemic.
Since the first case of contagion was detected on March 9, a total of 1,232,494 tests have been applied in Panama, which maintains a fatality of 1.7%, one of the lowest in the region.
The record number of 2,001 hospitalized was reached for the first time, of which 1,813 are in the ward and 188 in the Intensive Care Units (ICU). In the last 24 hours, 2,986 positive cases and 41 new deaths from covid-19 were added, for a total of 226,660 confirmed infections and 3,756 deaths, according to the entity’s report. Panama began a new lockdown on Thursday to try to contain a rampant rebound in the covid19 pandemic, which that same day reached a record number of 51 deaths.
Panama, with 4.2 million inhabitants, has experienced an intense upturn in the pandemic since the beginning of November with record numbers of daily cases, deaths, and diagnostic tests. The authorities extended the curfew and imposed a nightly dry law, a quarantine at Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and mobility restrictions by gender to make purchases in retail stores from last Monday until December 31, in an attempt to stop contagions, among other measures.
On Thursday, a group of 220 Cuban doctors hired by the Government to reinforce the health system, which has been overwhelmed by the pandemic, arrived in the country. The Minsa exhorted the population to stay at home as an “effective strategy” to avoid more infections, in addition to insisting on self-care “that prevents this deadly virus”, not to lower their guard and spend the year-end in their family nucleus avoiding making or receiving visits.
