News
Wednesday 4th August 2021.
August 4, 2021
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported this Tuesday, August 3, that in the last 24 hours there were 7 new deaths due to Covid-19 . With these new deaths, the total number of deaths rises to 6,851. Leonardo Labrador, head of epidemiology at Minsa, said that active cases in the country have decreased. He indicated that the current figure is 11,958. Regarding the new cases in the last 24 hours, the official reported that 932 were reported, after the application of 10,805 tests (positivity 8.6%). The total accumulated cases is 437,744. Labrador said that of this number, 418,935 people have recovered. There are 11,046 people in home isolation and 342 are in hotels. Meanwhile, there are 468 patients in the hospital ward and 102 in intensive care units. Labrador said this week’s epidemiological curve shows an 8% decrease compared to last week. The Rt rose to 1.0 compared to last week, when it marked 0.96. Panama received this Tuesday, a batch with 375,570 doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, to continue with the screening immunization strategy in different circuits of the country.
On the afternoon of this Tuesday, a subcommittee of the Credentials Commission began an analysis of Bill No. 96, which modifies the Internal Regulations of the National Assembly . However, the session was not broadcast on the Assembly channel. The independent deputy, Juan Diego Vásquez , denounced that some of his colleagues follow their criteria of maintaining “opacity and reducing citizen participation.”
The technical table of the Government, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Commission of the National Assembly met again this Tuesday, August 3, to continue with consultations on bill 329, which regulates the conflict of interest in the public service. Juan Diego Vásquez, an independent deputy, described the working session as positive because – according to him – it shows that the Assembly fulfills its commitment to regulate this issue. “I am very happy because the Comptroller’s Office and the Authority for Transparency and Access to Information have come here, and they want to assume the commitment of investigation and prevention,” he added.
The Electoral Tribunal (TE) reported that it began a forensic audit of the Democratic Change party (CD) after a complaint filed by a group of deputies, for alleged irregularities in the use of the post-electoral subsidy. According to the TE, the Directorate for the Supervision of Political Financing (DFFP) will carry out the investigation to determine the “effective compliance with the legal and regulatory norms applicable to the administration of the party”
The preliminary hearing followed against 18 people investigated for the alleged commission of the crime of money laundering to the detriment of the Superintendency of Securities Market (SMV), from the defunct firm Financial Pacific , will be held on September 13 and 14, 2021, at 10:00 am. This was decided by Judge Baloisa Marquínez, of the Third Criminal Court for Liquidation, in an edict signed on June 25. An alternate date was established on October 18 and 19, 2021, at 9:00 a.m.
At the end of the Tuesday morning of the trial for the puncture case, Nicomedes Castillo , attorney for the plaintiff Balbina Herrera , declared that between 25 and 30 pages of booklet number 2 (of the 7) have been read that are part of the evidence of the Special Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime
Panamanian Alonso Edward was unable to advance to the final of the 200 meter dash at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as he was unable to finish the race due to a possible injury. Edward started from lane 9 in the second heat elimination and as the race entered the last 100 meters, the runner slowed down and showed signs of having suffered some kind of discomfort in one of his legs.