Panama will continue lockdown to defeat killer virus

Panama will stay the course and maintain the quarantine program in the fight against COVID-19 said President Laurentino Cortizo on Tuesday, April 14  the day that the country was identified as one of 14 in the world on a path to stabilize the killer virus.

He said that more tests will be acquired to detect the coronavirus, in order to massify them, and sanitary measures adopted will not be “relaxed”.

“This is how we track contacts and isolate positives,” said Cortizo

“We all want the quarantine to be lifted. I don’t want to be locked up, I like to be with people … But we need quarantine and it is giving results. First, we have to control the transmission of the virus and second, it is a decision that the health team has to make, “he said.

Cortizo said that in the Cabinet Council on  Tuesday the Minister of Health, Rosario Turner, presented a report for beginning to plan how (but not when) the curfew will be lifted.

“We are not going to lower the guard to this virus of death,” he said.

D Day

Héctor Alexander, Minister of Economy and Finance a, leads the team that defines the actions for “D-day”, as Cortizo refers to the post coronavirus period.

The general state budget is being “restructured”, but with very precise priorities: health care for the population; the Panama Solidarity program, which consists of the delivery, “house by house”, of four vouchers of $ 80 each, per person of the family, and the implementation of large public infrastructure projects, necessary to revive the economy. Cortizo

These projects are still “being identified”, and that he is about to define which sectors have the greatest potential.

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