News
Thursday 13th January 2022.
January 13, 2022
In Panama, 6,513 new infections and seven deaths due to Covid-19 were registered in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported in its epidemiological report on Wednesday, January 12. With these new figures, the accumulated cases and deaths increased to 540,072 and 7,486, respectively. To know the new infections, 23,611 tests were applied for a positivity of 27.6%. According to the Minsa report, active cases total 38,932, of which 38,478 are in home isolation and 454 in hospitals. Those in isolation are divided into 37,969 at home and 509 in hospitalized hotels. There are 408 hospitalized patients in the ward and 46 in the intensive care unit.
The high demand for diagnostic tests for the Covid-19 disease in the country in recent days, regarding the arrival of the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus called Ómicron, brings with it a delay in the delivery of the results. Although the Covid-19 test is much easier to obtain than it was at the beginning of the pandemic, the ability to obtain it, with timely results, can vary widely in the swab points authorized by the Ministry of Health (Minsa ). The Minsa reported that the results must be delivered between 48 to 72 hours after the swab has been carried out, but they are taking a little longer due to the high demand for tests. In social networks there are people who say that they have had to wait up to five days for a result.
The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre , announced that the issue of when a person is in direct or in close contact of a positive for Covid-19 is being reviewed again . “We as a country, in the situation we are in, what we considered was to lower the isolation period from 14 days to 10 days and we have lowered the quarantine period from 14 days to five or six days, provided that a test is carried out and comes back negative, “he explained. The minister said that in the latter case the person must immediately return to work.
Between the Ministry of Health (Minsa) and the Government Innovation Authority (AIG) a list is drawn up of the officials who to date have not been vaccinated with Covid-19. This was revealed on Wednesday, by the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, who also detailed that between 15% and 20% of officials have not yet applied the doses against the new coronavirus. “We have organized the vaccination day and each minister will have to coordinate with his worker to comply with the law and show that we are the example of what is being done,” said the minister.
The Anti-Corruption Discharge Prosecutor’s Office of the Public Ministry requested in a hearing that ended Tuesday night, the sentence for five people – among them the former Vice Minister of Commerce Luis Eduardo Camacho González and the former director of the National Migration Service María Cristina González – for the alleged commission of crimes against the public administration related to the so-called call center case . This case has to do with the operation of a call center allegedly paid for with public funds to campaign for a political campaign in favor of Democratic Change.
Firearms continue to enter the country’s prisons. Proof of this is that three people were injured: two prisoners and a custodian, because of a shooting that took place Tuesday at La Nueva Joya prison. The incident, according to a report from the National Police, occurred in sector B of that prison, where two rival gangs clashed. Police sources detailed that the incident occurred after the relocation of some members of the Sam 23 gang to sector B of La Nueva Joya, where there are also inmates of the Calor Calor gang. In December 2019, a clash between rival gangs at La Joyita prison left 14 dead and 13 injured. After a search by the prison authorities, several firearms were located, including three Ak-47 rifles and nine-millimeter pistols.
Four consortiums participated this Wednesday, in the tender for the best value of the study, design, construction and financing project for the expansion of the Transisthmus highway, Villa Grecia – Don Bosco bridge in the Chilibre section. The reference price of this work, which is part of the Turnkey contracts promoted by the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) , is $ 39 million 789 thousand 736.
The National Energy Secretariat reported on the afternoon of this Wednesday, January 12, that fuel prices will increase in the country as of this Friday, January 14. The new prices for 91 and 95 octane gasoline and diesel will apply until January 28, The price of a gallon of 95 octane gasoline will increase 14 cents and that of 91 octane will increase 13 cents.While the price of a gallon of low-sulfur diesel is the one that will register the greatest rise, which will be 17 cents.