Monday
Monday 18th April 2022.
April 18, 2022
The epidemiological report of the Ministry of Health this Sunday, reports that one death was registered in Panama in the last 24 hours, for which the accumulated number of deaths from Covid-19 increased to 8,179. Regarding the new cases, it indicates that there are 200 new infections and 3,951 tests were applied for a positivity of 5.1%. The report adds that the active cases total 2,395, of which 2,322 are in home isolation and 73 are hospitalized. Those in isolation are divided into 2,305 at home and 17 in hotels. While there are 61 patients hospitalized in the wards and 12 in the intensive care unit.
The epidemiological week that ended Saturday (April 10 to 16) closed with 1,836 new Covid-19 infections , some 132 more cases than the previous week (April 3 to 9) when 1,704 cases were recorded. The foregoing represents an increase of 8% this week, although specialists point out that the rise in cases will be normal. Specialists in managing the pandemic generated by Covid-19 estimate that there could be a slight rebound in new cases in the coming days, but they rule out a fifth wave.
President Laurentino Cortizo confirmed on Sunday morning that the new payment of the Digital Voucher will be from April 18 to 22. Cortizo indicated through his official Twitter account that 400,812 Panamanians will receive the payment, who have complied with the “co-responsibility and established criteria.” The voucher belongs to the Panama Solidario plan, which was created due to the economic effects caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The information on the new payment became known after it was detailed on April 7 that the Government Innovation Authority (AIG) would apply new security measures on the Vale Digital and Beca Digital platforms.
The First Superior Court of Justice did not admit a protection of constitutional guarantees presented by the defense of Claudia Purcait , sentenced together with Oydén Ortega Collado, son of former magistrate Oydén Ortega Durán , for the crime of influence peddling related to a series of actions aimed at the Supreme Court of Justice ruling in favor of one of the parties in a land dispute. Purcait received a four-year prison sentence, which was commuted to a $5,000 fine. According to her defense, during the hearing, held on March 8, the Public Ministry (MP) never revealed the degree of participation of each of the accused. It adds that this constitutes a violation of due process and of the constitutional guarantees of the accused. But the First Court of Justice, in a ruling on April 7 that had the presentation of Judge Carlos Raúl Trujillo, decided not to accept Purcait’s appeal.
On March 31, 2022, LGS Panama Tourism Development presented Miambiente with the environmental impact study (EIA) of the “Amador Maritime Development” project, which consists of the construction of a 50-hectare marine landfill, for hotels, shops, restaurants, a “public beach”, two marinas, a yacht club, a berth for ferries, “among others”. The next day, with the speed and efficiency that you will never receive in any State service, the Environmental Impact Assessment Directorate issued a 26-page report in which it admits the EIA and orders the start of “the evaluation and analysis phase ”. Although, many things attract attention, one of the most worrying is that the promoter promises to subsequently deliver a “maritime development master plan” to start that landfill. In other words, They are requesting permission for a landfill the size of Park Omar, without specifying in an elaborate way why.
A fifth of the energy used by Panamanians in the first three months of the year -or 20 of every 100 kilowatt hours- came from clean, non-polluting energy. Electricity production with wind and solar sources represented 20.9% of generation during the first quarter of 2022, according to a report from the National Energy Secretariat (SNE). Of 2.6 million megawatt hours (MWh) that were generated between January, February and March 2022, 553 thousand 089 MWh were from solar and wind sources, or non-conventional renewable energies.