News
Thursday 11th November 2021.
November 11, 2021
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported this Wednesday, no deaths were reported from Covid-19 reported in the last 24 hours. Up until Tuesday, the Health authorities registered 7,338 deaths from the virus, since the pandemic reached the country in March 2020. The fatality rate remains at 1.5%. Meanwhile, in the epidemiological report to date, 185 new cases of coronavirus are reported after the application of 6 thousand 748 tests, for an effectiveness of 2.7%. It stands out that there are 1,642 active cases, of which 1,498 are in home isolation. This amount is divided into 1,421 in houses and 77 in hotels. The number of hospitalized reaches 144; It is detailed that 117 are in wards and 27 in intensive care. This Wednesday it was also highlighted that in the regional hospital of Veraguas, Luis Chicho Fábrega, there are no patients hospitalized for the first time since the pandemic began.
Panama is going through a calmer end of the year for now in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic , when comparing the figures registered in early November 2020, when the second wave of the virus began to gain strength. Compliance with biosecurity measures and especially the vaccination process, with about 80% of the target population to be immunized with two doses, have contributed to a different picture.
Former President Ricardo Martinelli was acquitted on Tuesday night of the crimes of interception of communications and monitoring, persecution and surveillance without judicial authorization by a trial court composed of judges Iveth Francois Vega, Jennifer Saavedra Naranjo and Marysol América Osorio. The decision was given at 7:35 pm, and two years after another trial court made the same decision, on August 8, 2019. That trial was annulled by an appeals court. This time, the court concluded that the Public Ministry did not prove that Martinelli ordered the wiretaps.“There are 49 people wiretapped, which could only have been with sophisticated software that the judges themselves recognized was bought by the Panamanian State, to be used by the Security Council. Who controls the Security Council? Exclusively the President of the Republic ”, said Judge Harry Díaz.
Luis Enrique Martinelli Linares , one of the two sons of former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal (2009-2014) detained in Guatemala since July 2020, will finally be extradited to the United States on November 15. The information was confirmed by the newspaper El Periódico de Guatemala, through the defense of Martinelli Linares. For now, it is unknown when the other son of the former president, Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares , who is also detained in Guatemala, will be extradited .
During the official acts of this November 10, the historian Manuel Moreno exhorted Panamanians to “get vaccinated against that other deadly virus that of corruption.” “Just as the coronavirus is being fought with vaccines, let us also fight the anti-values, the Vivo Juega, the search and everything that represents the corruption that does not allow our peoples to advance,” said Moreno. Moreno was distinguished as the official speaker of the Bicentennial of the First Cry of Independence in La Villa de Los Santos.
The state-owned Empresa de Transmission Eléctrica, SA (Etesa) agreed to pay $258,528 for almost one hectare of land that it mistakenly occupied in 1999 on a private farm as part of the construction of the Panama II substation, in Pedregal, province of Panama. After 22 years, Etesa agreed to buy the land “to avoid future lawsuits” and guarantee the security of the provision of the electricity transmission service, as justified among the reasons for the purchase.
The United States (EU) Embassy in Panama urged US citizens in the country to be more cautious, due to the wave of crime on the isthmus. US citizens are reminded to take adequate precautions and increase their alert level regarding personal security to avoid cases of kidnapping, the embassy indicated this November 10, 2021.Business owners can be targeted by criminals, who can offer business deals to lure victims and then ask for ransoms, it was warned.