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Tuesday 21st march 2023.

March 21, 2023

 

With several hours of delay, the Scrutiny Board resumed at noon on Monday, March 20, the counting of the minutes of the internal elections of Democratic Change (CD) held this Sunday.

This process was scheduled to restart at 8:00 a.m., but was not possible. The president of the CD Elections Commission, Ovigildo Herrera, said he had contacted the Electoral Tribunal (TE) to find out if new records had arrived. “It was not to sit there for two hours,” he said.

“There are minutes from Chiriquí and Bocas Del Toro that will arrive between this afternoon and tomorrow,” Herrera added from the headquarters of the TE.

The candidate for the Women’s Secretariat, Nadine González, of the faction “Change is Now,” led by Yanibel Ábrego, arrived there.

González is awarded the victory in that secretariat. He also alleges that they would have won the youth secretariat. He therefore requested that the results of the elections be published.

“There is concern not only within Cambio Democrático but throughout an entire country that is waiting for preliminary figures,” he said.

CD went to the polls to choose the 1,945 conventionals who will later elect a new board of directors, in addition to the authorities of the secretariats of Women, Youth, and the boards of directors of corregimientos.


Around twenty countries from the Americas met this Monday in Panama to discuss regional coordination strategies in the event of a future pandemic and avoid repeating some mistakes made during the covid-19 health crisis.

“I’m here with 18 neighboring countries in the region to see how we prepare for the next pandemic,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jose W. Fernandez told reporters at the opening of the “Health Economics Dialogue of the Americas.”

“And it is something that we have to do jointly between countries and even within governments, all in solidarity, find a way not to suffer the same losses that we suffered during the pandemic,” added Fernández, who concludes a two-day official visit to Panama on Monday.

The US undersecretary recalled that “Latin America, with 8% of the world’s population, suffered 30% of deaths from covid-19.”

“The first thing we have to do is see what we did wrong” and “how we can improve the joint actions we did and from there we will look for ways to prepare, improve our health systems (and) look for ways to collaborate to do things together,” he explained.

Specifically, it aims to streamline medical supply chains, vaccine production, supplies, optimize pharmaceutical distribution networks and exchange best practices on national regulations in the area, according to information from the U.S. Embassy in Panama.


President Laurentino Cortizo held a meeting on Monday, March 20, with the Undersecretary of Agriculture of the United States, Alex Taylor, to discuss the Trade Promotion Agreement (TPC), reported the Secretary of Communication of the State.

In addition, they discussed the Trade Capacity Building program.

Cortizo said that the country has taken the first steps to implement projects to strengthen Trade Capacities, with the aspiration of coordinating with the United States and strengthening trade relations “with our partner and allied countries, without affecting national production.”

Present at the meeting were Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney; the Minister of Commerce and Industries, Federico Alfaro; the Minister of Agricultural Development, Augusto Valderrama; and Juan Carlos Sosa, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade.


The mandatory use of masks on public transport is coming to an end, due to the low percentage of covid-19 infections in the country, Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre announced on Monday, March 20, 2023.

“We have been able to recommend to the President the lifting of the obligation,” Sucre said, and the measure will take effect once the rule is published in the Official Gazette.

“We are already in the legal procedures to make it official and upload it in the Official Gazette, to finalize the lifting of the measure,” said the minister.

Of course, he stressed that its use will be maintained in health facilities and the use was also recommended to those suffering from chronic diseases.

The non-mandatory measure also includes food handlers in Panama.

According to Sucre, we can talk with enough data, about the pandemic already being controlled.

He previously explained that for more than 5.6 weeks in a row positivity has remained low, below 5. “The average weekly positivity is between 3% and 3.5%, which gives us a lot of peace of mind,” he said.

“We have passed the Carnival which was one of the stages in which the public health team was a little worried about seeing what was going to happen, however three weeks later we can do the analysis of a small increase that there was, yes it is true, an increase but very slight, which does not worry us, ” Said.

He added that “we have more than a week since the school year began and we have not had an increase in cases among children and this gives us a lot of peace of mind.”

For Sucre, “the vaccination strategy in Panama is giving results and that is what we are seeing at the moment, also self-care, the participation of all, that we have learned to take care of each one, which has decreased the risks of contagion, even the number of patients in Intensive Care, “he said.

This Friday, the World Health Organization is expected to declare the end of the covid-19 pandemic, globally.


Authorities seized several prohibited items during a search of the Nueva Joya penitentiary center.

Among the seized are $ 3,143 in cash, 62 cell phones, two shovels, two ammunition for a 9mm. They also seized cell phone cables, digital weights, “plates,” memories for phones, cigarette lighters.

The operation called “Armageddon” was carried out in sector B, of the La Nueva Joya Penitentiary Center, exactly in the so-called medium security pavilion 1, 2, and 3; and the maximum security pavilion 1, extreme 5 and maximum 2.


A team of doctors from the non-profit association Healing International Medical Missions will carry out from today, March 20 to March 23, a surgical day at the Dr. Rafael Estévez Hospital of the Social Security Fund in Aguadulce, province of Coclé.

Carlos Barba, a medical member of Healing International Medical Missions, indicated that they selected Aguadulce on the recommendation of the authorities of the Social Security Fund.

The team is made up of 19 health professionals including surgeons, ophthalmologists, dentists, nurses and surgical technicians, Barba said.

Medical staff expects to perform 50 cataract surgeries, 60 gallbladder and hernia surgeries this week. In addition, 60 people need extractions and dental cleaning.

The Healing International Medical Missions association is made up of medical personnel from Rio Grande, Texas, United States and was formed from the hurricane in Haiti.


 

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