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Thursday 24th June 2021.

June 24, 2021

The Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported Wednesday, that in the last 24 hours seven people died from Covid-19, the accumulated number of deaths amounts to 6,491. Meanwhile, the number of active cases rose to 11,081 cases. The Minsa advised that, it updated a death from a previous day. In the last hours 24 hours 1,077 new positive cases were reported, for a cumulative total of 396,526. Of this last number, 378,954 people have recovered. The total number of tests applied is 14,117 tests, and the percentage of positivity is 7.6%. In home isolation, 10,472 are reported, of which 10,109 are at home and 363 in hotels. There are 609 hospitalized and 526 of them are in the wards and 83 are in intensive care units.

A new legal action was presented by the defense of former President  Ricardo Martinelli , within the process for illegal interception of communications. This is a factual appeal filed before the Superior Court of Appeals, against the decision of the guarantee judge María José Urbina to deny the prescription of the criminal action in this case. At said hearing, the defense of Martinelli, led by the lawyer Alma Cortés , must support the appeal. The plaintiff attorney Carlos Herrera Moran , legal representative of Mauro Zúñiga (victim of the wiretapping), confirmed that he had received the notification from the Judicial Office, but considered that the appeal was inadmissible and clearly a delaying tactic. Herrera Morán said that he will ask the Superior Court of Appeals to sanction Cortés, since two guarantee judges and the appeals court itself have ruled on the request for prescription of the criminal action and in both cases, the defense argument has been dismissed.

A guarantee judge admitted this Wednesday, June 23, “raising to a complex cause” the investigation into the murder of the activist of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), Wendy Rodríguez. The murder of Rodríguez, 42, occurred at noon on August 27, 2020 on the South corridor, near Llano Bonito. In addition, two minors who were traveling with her were injured. On October 3, 2020, the apprehension of five people allegedly linked to the crime was legalized.

The President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo , met with representatives of the National Council of Organized Workers (Conato) and the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep). This, to invite workers to return to the dialogue table by the Social Security Fund (CSS).

The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) authorized Wednesday, the automatic renewal of the contract with the company Panama Ports Company (PPC,) to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristóbal for another 25 years or until 2047. The AMP estimates that, with the renewal, the State will receive more than $ 800 million from PPC, in the next 25 years.

One of the objectives of the Superintendency of Banks of Panama (SBP) with the new regulatory measures that will come into effect on July 1 and that were announced by President Laurentino Cortizo last Monday is to purify the modified loan portfolio. This is the portfolio of loans that have received some type of relief or moratorium since the pandemic began, and that continues to generate uncertainty in the banking sector. Asked about the possible execution of guarantees, Castillo pointed out that “contacting the bank, documenting, formalizing and complying gives you a passport so that with complete peace of mind, the bank will not proceed to execute any type of guarantee,” he said.

The Panamanian singer-songwriter and actor Rubén Blades received this Wednesday, June 23 at the Royal Palace of El Pardo, in Madrid, the gold medal for merit of fine arts in 2018.

This Sunday, June 27, the staff of the National Aqueducts and Sewers Institute (Idaan) will carry out preventive maintenance in the electrical substation of the Chilibre water treatment plant, so it will be out of service for four hours.

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