News
Wednesday 9th March 2022.
March 9, 2022
A total of three people have died in the last 24 hours due to Covid-19, reported the Ministry of Health (Minsa) this Tuesday. In its epidemiological report, the ministry highlighted that they update a death from a previous day, so the accumulated number of deaths in the country amounts to 8,122. Regarding the new infections, the health authorities indicated that 382 were registered in the last 24 hours. They applied 7,350 tests for a positivity of 5.2%. Active cases total 3,030, of which 2,881 are in home isolation and 149 hospitalized. Those in isolation are divided into 2,843 at home and 38 in hotels. Those hospitalized are 127 in the ward and 22 in intensive care units.
The latest figures from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) highlight that at least 1.3 million people already have the complete vaccination scheme against Covid-19 , which is three doses. According to the vaccination report, since January 2021, 7,723,436 doses against the virus have been administered, of which 1,365,857 correspond to booster doses or third doses.
After two years of distance and blended classes, the 2022 school year began on Monday with a 5% increase in student enrollment in official schools, and a 15% drop in private schools. The Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos , recognized that they have a saturation in the official classrooms. She added that this year there has been the migration of almost 2,000 students, but the great migration occurred last year, with more than 14,000.
To meet the demand of users when face-to-face classes begin in schools, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) authorized 100% capacity in the Metro Bus transport units. The Mi Bus company reported that about 10,000 trips will be made daily to mobilize more than 400,000 passengers. This will help meet the high demand for the routes more frequently in the morning, midday and evening hours, he said.
The First Superior Court of the First Judicial District of Panama ordered to allow the civil complaint filed by former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, against the former Attorney General of the Nation, Kenia Porcell . In July 2020, the Third Civil Court, under the charge of Ana Zita Rowe, did not accept the lawsuit filed by the lawyer Alfredo Vallarino on behalf of Martinelli. Rowe argued that she was not competent to carry out the process and that the matter had to be presented before the Third Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice.
The mayor of Panama, José Luis Fábrega, declared this Tuesday morning, that he is not afraid of revoking his mandate because he never violated the law. Fábrega insisted to journalists that he has always acted transparently and in accordance with the law. “I can’t say more because we haven’t been notified.” The official recalled that he was popularly elected by more than 175,000 votes and that his actions have always been in accordance with the decentralization law.He added that after being notified by the Electoral Tribunal that a process to revoke his mandate was admitted, his lawyers “will take action on the matter.” The lawyer Roberto Ruiz Díaz, who was the one who submitted the request to start the revocation process for Fábrega, recalled that more than 200,000 signatures need to be collected to make his request effective.
The Court of Honor of the Cambio Democrático (CD) party rejected an appeal for reconsideration presented by a group of 15 deputies, to whom the group’s attorney general is following a disciplinary process that would lead to the revocation of their mandate. The court also approved maintaining the disciplinary process for the “commission of acts contrary to the postulates contained in the statute” of the party. The group is also accused of not following the guidelines laid out by the party’s president, Rómulo Roux, and the CD’s national board of directors.
The revelations of the La Prensa newspaper that detail that one of the main contractors of the State, Bagatrac, SA, sold -by triangulation- to the president of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) and influential deputy of the National Assembly, Benicio Robinson, a farm in Boquete (Chiriquí), close to the area where the company was simultaneously carrying out improvement works on public infrastructure, require an exhaustive investigation.
The Colombian Attorney General’s Office requested before a judge this Tuesday, March 8, that criminal lawyer Diego Cadena be sent to prison, after he traveled to Panama despite the fact that a home arrest measure had been imposed on him. Last February, Cadena, who is being prosecuted for the alleged crimes of procedural fraud and witness bribery, traveled to Panama City. The international media have published that one of the proofs of Cadena’s contempt is a photograph in which he is seen sitting in a restaurant in a hotel in Panama.