Covid-19 deaths register “significant” decrease

This year, the country went from reporting up to 126 deaths from Covid-19 in the epidemiological week that ran from January 30 to February 5, to registering only six deaths in the week that ran from April 3 to 9.

This is a “significant” decrease, both for the authorities of the Ministry of Health and for epidemiologists.

The statistics indicate that since the first case was registered in Panama, on March 9, 2020, the Health region that reported the most deaths was the metropolitan area, with 2,105, out of a total of 8,178 deaths from the virus. That represents 26%.

The township with the most deaths was Juan Díaz, with 260, followed by Tocumen, with 228, and December 24, with 214 deaths from Covid-19.

For Israel Cedeño, director of the metropolitan region, since the last week of January 2022, there has been a decrease in positivity and the incidence of new cases, although he clarified that the epidemiological behavior of Covid-19 continues to oscillate.

“A rise in positivity is not something that should scare us, but it does raise alerts to the system to take preventive measures. SARS-CoV-2 is still here and not because we have less than 100 cases, it has already disappeared”, he pointed out.

Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) , has urged the countries of the Americas to remain vigilant and urgently close the vaccination gaps, given the increase in Covid-19 cases in Europe and Asia due to the Omicron BA.2.

“We cannot ignore the risk of further spikes in Covid-19,” she added. “We know what needs to be done to protect our population but there are 240 million people in the Americas who have not yet received a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.