News
Tuesday 28th June 2022.
June 28, 2022
According to the latest report from the Department of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, 866 new cases of covid-19 and one death were confirmed in the last 24 hours. The 866 cases reported in this Monday were detected after the application of 4,807 tests for a positivity of 18%. Regarding deaths, one was reported in the last 24 hours, for a total of 8,348. The lethality is 0.9%. As for the active cases, it is detailed that there are 14 thousand 148, of this amount 13 thousand 918 are in home isolation and 230 hospitalized. Those in isolation are divided into 13,906 at home and 12 in hotels, while those hospitalized are 195 in the ward and 35 in intensive care.
The commission for the evaluation of the critical shortage of medicines recommended the implementation of a pilot plan so that the patients of the Social Security Fund (CSS) can also acquire medicines in the country’s stores. The announcement was made this Monday, by the Vice President of the Republic and coordinator of the commission, José Gabriel Carrizo , who presented the proposal to President Laurentino Cortizo . Carrizo asked the president to approve the beginning of this proposal, which is an alternative to the lack of medicines in the CSS. Carrizo specified that this pilot plan is called MedicSol (Solidarity Medicine) that would work in a similar way to the Digital Voucher. “My decision is to approve the recommendation to start as soon as possible,” said Cortizo. He added that it was important to stress that this is a pilot plan.
The country has added 60,000 additional workers to the informal sector in less than a year, which, combined with the increases in the state payroll and the contraction of formal private employment, indicates a worsening of the process of precariousness and nationalization of employment that had been developing before the pandemic in Panama. In October 2021 there were 677 thousand 875 informal jobs, while for April 2022 the figure stood at 737 thousand 922. This means that informality has held 48.2% of the non-agricultural employed population throughout the country.
The Judicial Branch must demand from the Executive a budget that allows it to exercise its functions properly and in compliance with the ruling of the Supreme Court of Justice that declared several articles of the 2021 budget unconstitutional for failing to comply with article 214 of the Constitution that indicates, among other aspects , that “the budgets of the Judicial Branch and the Public Prosecutor’s Office shall not be less, together, than 2% of the current income of the Central Government .”
After the arrival of the new leadership of the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), headed by Benicio Robinson and Rubén De León, president and secretary, respectively, the discomfort within the group has worsened, a situation that has even led founders to resign from the party of Omar Torrijos Herrera. Those who have left the ranks of the PRD have pointed out that the group has lost its way and that they have stopped identifying with the ideals and values that at one point led them to be part of this political project. Added to this are the complaints from the party’s bases, which indicate that they have not been considered, particularly to enter the already bloated state bureaucracy.
This Monday, June 27, the agricultural cargo carriers of the Highlands and Boquete sector of the province of Chiriquí continue with their second day of vigil and stoppage of activities. The stoppage was carried out despite the fact that the Government on Saturday, June 25, agreed to freeze the price of fuel at 3 dollars and 95 cents per gallon for agricultural transport. This Sunday a group of spokesmen for the protesters told local media that they want the reduction not only to be for that sector, but for the entire country.