Monday
Monday 14th March 2022.
March 14, 2022
On this Sunday, March 175 new infections of Covid 19 were registered. In the last 24 hours, there were 5 deaths, which brings the total number of deaths to 8,137, reported the Ministry of Health (Minsa) , through its epidemiology report. The new cases were detected after 4,240 tests were applied, which showed a positivity of 4.1%. According to the epidemiological report there are 2,710 active cases, of which 2,585 are in home isolation and 125 hospitalized. Regarding those who are in isolation, it indicates that 2,552 remain in their homes and 33 in the so-called hospital hotels. While there are 109 hospitalized in the wards and 16 in intensive care units.
During the weekend, the National Police had to intervene in at least 150 clandestine parties in the district of San Miguelito. This was announced by the general director of the entity, John Omar Dornheim Castillo. He also indicated that, in the early hours of this Sunday, there was an exchange of shots in one of the parking lots, in the El Valle de Urracá sector. This event left two dead (a woman and a man) and eight people injured, he added.
Today, more than 143 thousand middle and high school students from official schools return to face-to-face classes. These are the regions of central Panama, northern Panama, eastern Panama, western Panama (Arraiján and La Chorrera), San Miguelito and Colón. After two years of distance or blended classes, due to Covid-19, the student population of Panama – which totals 954,233 students from official and private schools – began to return to schools on March 7. However, the authorities agreed to postpone the start of the school year in middle and high school as part of an action to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 in highly crowded areas.
“The cases of corruption, scandals and accusations that are regularly uncovered keep us in a destructive vicious cycle and confirm that transparency, accountability and the rule of law are far from the ideal of a democratic system.”This is part of the message provided by the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (Cciap), an organization that promotes that the country, as a member of the Alliance for Open Government, comply with the commitments made, before the international community, through the IV National Action Plan for Open Government. “Citizens are tired and disappointed to see how the State budgets are developed and distributed, always with political criteria, which do not respond to the needs of investment and national development,” “It is immoral and frustrating to see how state entities inflate payrolls without any explanation, while they neglect public investment,” they added through the text of the Camera opina .
For the first time in the history of the Panamanian administration of justice, an Oral Trial Court issued a guilty verdict for the sale of judgments in the office of a magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) . The sentence of the court – made up of judges Ilka Castillo (president), Jennifer Saavedra (rapporteur) and Roberto Tejeira – was known last Friday night. It was unanimous and found guilty of crimes against the public administration, in the form of influence peddling, Oydén Ortega Collado and Claudia Purcait, who are the son and former secretary, respectively, of Oydén Ortega Durán, magistrate of the Civil Chamber since January from 2008 to March 2019. During the trial, the anti-corruption prosecutors Leyda Sáenz and Elvis Coronado stated that the defendants carried out actions to get the magistrates of the Court to issue a ruling in favor of the businessman César Alvarado in a dispute over eight farms in Chiriquí.
US President Joe Biden nominated Panamanian journalist Luis Botello as a candidate for a member of the International Broadcasting Advisory Council of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM). “I am extremely honored” by this nomination, Botello reacted on his Twitter account. “This is a crucial moment to support freedom and democracy,” added the Panamanian, who currently serves as Assistant Vice President for Global Impact and Strategy at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
Conventional members of the Panameñista Party met this Sunday, in the city of Santiago, province of Veraguas, to ratify the results of the election of March 6, when they chose the authorities that will lead the political group for the next five years.In this activity -organized and financed by the Electoral Court- the convention ratified the board of directors, chaired by José Isabel Blandón, national directors, the prosecutor, deputy prosecutor; the Court of Honor and Discipline, the defender of its members and its deputy. In addition, they will confirm the sectoral, provincial, and regional executive secretaries and the Board of Directors of the National Secretariat for Women and Youth.