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Tuesday 17th May 2022.

May 17, 2022

 

The Department of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported on Monday, \a death in the last 24 hours due to covid-19. With the new death in the country there is a cumulative of 8,206 deaths, for a lethality of 1.0%. According to the report, 1,799 new cases were detected in the last few hours. Meanwhile, those hospitalized total 176 in the wards and 32 in intensive care units. This Monday, a total of 8,403 tests were carried out, which translates into a positivity of 21.4%, which has been maintained in the last week. According, to the Minsa, Juan Díaz. Bethania, San Francisco, Rufina Alfaro and Penonomé are the areas of the country that this Monday registered the highest number of cases of the new coronavirus. The active cases total 24,129, of which 23,921 are in isolation and 208 hospitalized. Of those who are in isolation, a total of 23,874 are in their residence and 47 in the so-called hospital hotels.

In order to face any type of variant of covid-19 and protect themselves from the severity of the virus, the national head of Nursing of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Eusebia Calderón de Copete, reiterated this Monday, the importance of the application of the doses. Calderón de Copete explained that the doses against covid-19 will be applied from the age of 12 to all immunosuppressed patients. She also recalled that this application will be voluntary for people over 50 years of age, mainly with chronic diseases. In this sense, the entity recalled that the second booster dose (fourth dose) will be applied to people who optionally want to receive it.

On the eighth day of the strike, different groups in the province of Colón continued with the protests and road closures, demanding that the government respond to their demands. After nearly eight hours of closure, there were clashes between crowd control agents and carriers who keep the road in this sector closed since the early hours of the morning. The police agents proceeded to launch tear gas and were trying to get the drivers to move the buses from the highway, but this did not happen. This noon the organized groups that are on strike proceeded to close the streets that give access to the Cuatro Altos sector. However, almost an hour later, the National Police crowd control agents proceeded to clear the roads using tear gas. A group of teachers who are on strike warned that tomorrow they will continue with the protests.

The Electoral Court reported on the afternoon of this Monday, that until 4:00 pm a total of 16 thousand 11 signatures had been collected in support of the revocation of the mandate of the mayor of Panama, José Luis Fábrega. The collection of signatures began on Wednesday, April 20, and the proponents of this initiative must collect a total of 198,920 signatures within a period of 120 days.

Four days before the outcome in a court in New York, of one of the multiple chapters of the global corruption plot known as the Odebrecht case, once again there is ” international shame ” in the air that Panama and it’s administration of justice have not yet been able to bring to trial those locally responsible for the diversion of millions of dollars destined for public infrastructure works. Various sources consulted by the La Prensa newspaper agree on this, including the one who presented one of the original complaints of the emblematic Odebrecht case seven years ago. Starting at 4:00 pm this Friday, May 20, the American judge Raymond Dearie will read the sentence of the brothers Luis Enrique and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli Linares, who pleaded guilty to participating, between August 2009 and September 2015, ” in bribery payments made by and at the direction of Odebrecht to a then-high-ranking official of the Government of Panama, who was a close relative of the defendants .” This period coincides with the presidential administration of Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal (2009-2014), father of the Martinelli Linares brothers. What does it mean for the country and who is this character? Former comptroller Alvin Weeden, who maintains that the United States is more interested in sharks than sardines, says that he has no doubt that the one who instructed the Martinelli Linares brothers was their own father, ” so that they would receive that ill-gotten money and they would will take it abroad .” Weeden was one of the first to file a complaint with Odebrecht -in September 2015- to initiate an investigation into the use of the local financial system in illegal activities. He says that “ happily the long arm of justice is working somewhere in the world ”. But this, he adds, is at the same time that unfortunately another jurisdiction has had to do it. With this week’s sentence, he explains, the prosecutors’ investigations do not end, since the next one would be the “senior official ” or one of his ministers. At this point, he agrees with the former Attorney General, Ana Matilde Gómez, who described as ” a national shame ” the fact that the Martinelli Linares have pleaded guilty to the crime of laundering bribes paid by Odebrecht in favor of a “senior official ” of the Panamanian government, and that he is a close relative ” and that in Panama not even the preliminary hearing could be held. “ The equation is almost perfect or almost complete. For whom could the children launder money if they did not hold public office? ”, Gómez asked herself in an interview published by La Prensa on May 14.

The momentum of the primary market set the trend in trading on the Latin American Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2022. First-time issuances totaled $1,223 million, an increase of $195 million or 19% when compared to the same period last year. Lerzy Batista, general manager of Latinclear, said that the growth in this segment is mainly explained by the trading of fund shares and negotiable commercial securities (VCN), short-term titles. In the first four months of the year, 17 issues were listed, with increased activity in March and April, after January and February with a slower rate.

The National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) issued a warning of prevention due to the passage in the region of the first tropical wave of the season. According to the entity, the notice is valid until next Friday, May 19, and covers nine provinces, three counties, mountainous and maritime sectors of the Panamanian Caribbean and Pacific. Last night Sinaproc reported that tropical wave No.1 was located in Venezuela and was moving at 28 kilometers per hour. In addition, the storm had a favorable environment for the development of clouds and storms towards Colombia and Panama. “During the week these conditions will increase the rains over the national territory, according to the Hydrometeorology Directorate of the Electricity Transmission Company SA,” Sinaproc reported in a statement.

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