Covid-19 test positivity rate falls to 7.8%

The positivity  rate of 11,625  covid-19 tests, conducted on Friday February 2 fell to   7.8%  reports The Ministry of Health (Minsa),

According to the Ministry, the trend of positivity is downward, taking into account that in January the positive cases reached up 29%.

In the preceding 24 hours, 920 new cases were reported and 23 people died from Covid-19. The accumulated number of deaths due to the virus amounts to 5,595 with a fatality rate of 1.7%.

Meanwhile, active cases total 18,756. 17,268 people are reported in home isolation, 1,488 are hospitalized  (1,286 in the ward and 202 in intensive  care units).

Variants

Meanwhile protocols of passengers arriving at Tocumen International Airport have been strengthened   to detect new variants of Covid-19 strains.

The Minsa reported that after a week of sequencing the virus detected in a man and a woman from South Africa, who arrived in Panama after stopping in the Netherlands, scientists from the Gorgas Memorial Institute confirmed that they did not have the contagious variant in the United Kingdom or the one detected in the African country.