News
Wednesday 20th January 2021.
January 20, 2021
The accumulated cases of Covid-19 in Panama increased to 301,534 , after 2,173 new infections were reported this Tuesday, January 19. The epidemiological report of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) registered 31 deaths in the last 24 hours, and 5 on previous dates, which brings the total number of deaths from Covid-19 to 4,864. Leonardo Labrador, reported that the more than 2,000 new cases were detected after 13,046 tests were applied, which gives a positivity of 16.6%. There are 2,597 hospitalized, of whom 2,356 remain in the wards and 241 in intensive care units, the Ministry. The effective reproductive number (Rt) or average value of the infection rate fell from 1.18 to 0.97, which is good news because the ideal is 1 or below 1. The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, reported that as of this weekend Santa Fe, Veraguas province, will have to comply with a total quarantine on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, he announced that restaurants that give service outdoors and those with distance of two meters can be preparing their opening, the date will be announced soon. The first 12,840 vaccines against Covid-19 were due to arrive in the country at 12:30 am today Wednesday, confirmed the Ministry of Health (Minsa). While this Tuesday, “Pfizer informed us that as part of the plans to increase its production capacity, announced over the weekend in Europe and which will affect Latin America, it will temporarily reduce shipments globally for three weeks”, Minsa emphasized in the statement. With this resumption of production, it is guaranteed that the 450,000 doses agreed for Panama will reach the country, which are due to be received in the first quarter of 2021.
More than 300 thousand people have registered to be vaccinated against Covid-19, confirmed Luis Oliva, administrator of the Government Innovation Authority (AIG) . Oliva explained that 25% of those enrolled reported that they suffer from chronic diseases.
The main economic indicators showed a negative trend in the first 11 months of 2020, weighed down by the paralysis of different sectors due to the state of national emergency due to the pandemic.
In the midst of complaints of lack of participation and in view of the worsening of the actuarial deficit that affects the pension program of the Social Security Fund (CSS) , the national dialogue on this entity began yesterday.
The Panamanian Ombudsman’s Office is working with Costa Rica to seek a response to a group of at least 115 Nicaraguans, who are stranded in Panama after the border closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) launched this Tuesday, a mobile application for emergencies and geolocation called “Sinaproc Alert”. This tool will allow citizens to “report or denounce possible risks caused by nature and man-made,” the entity reported in a statement.