Panama pandemic cases zoom 10.6%

Panama averaged over 1,000  new cases a  day of covid-19   in the epidemiological week, from June 27 to July 3, something that has not happened since last February.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health (Minsa), in the last seven days, 7,453 new infections were reported, which is 10.6% more than the previous week

Epidemiologist Arturo Rebollón stressed that if the growth continues, next week, instead of averaging 1000 cases per day, it would be 1,100. He warned that in 15 days we went from having 70 patients in the intensive care unit to more than 100 which indicates that there is a third wave gaining strength.

“Definitely, July will be a difficult month in terms of managing the pandemic,”  he said.

According to the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, for now, they have control of the situation, although he recognized that 8% positivity like the current one is not ideal.

From today, in the districts of Pesé and Chitré (Herrera), La Chorrera (Panama Oeste) and Penonomé and Aguadulce (Coclé), a total Sunday quarantine will operate.

July is a challenge for the country in terms of the management and control of the pandemic generated by Covid-19 since the third wave could reach its highest point during this month.

In the opinion of the epidemiologist, there is the real problem of the pandemic, since half of the infected who enter the ICU end up dying or causing a high occupancy in hospital beds.

However, he recalled that a million doses of vaccines will be received in July and that would be a great weapon to protect the population against hospitalizations or serious forms of the disease.

in Panama 561,973 people have completed the vaccination cycle, that is, they received two doses, either of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine or of AstraZeneca. That represents 13.3% of the population.

Fatigue

Public health specialist Jorge Luis Prosperi agreed with Rebollón that citizen discipline has been cracked and there are many citizens, especially young people, who, defeated by pandemic fatigue, have chosen bo to comply with security measures, putting themselves they and their relatives in danger.

“As if that were not enough, there is a growing number of people who say, on social networks, that vaccines do not work and reject them, which is a mistake, since it is proven in other latitudes that more than 90% of the mortality occurs among unvaccinated people.

-The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), reports that with 6,514 deaths as of June 26, Panama ranks third among the Central American countries with the highest number of deaths, after Guatemala and Honduras.

In turn, it registers a mortality of 150.1 per 100,000people, which is lower than the average mortality for America, which is 185 per 100.000.