The epidemiological report of this Thursday, November 19, shows that in Panama, in the last 24 hours, some 1,256 new cases of coronavirus were detected, which raised the total number of infections to 151,089.
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) in its report also reported that there were 15 new death cases with COVID-19, which raised the number of accumulated deaths to 2,922. The case fatality rate of the virus in the country is 2.0% (fatality rate to Panama total population is 0.07%).
Regarding hospitalizations in the ward caused by this virus in the country, 871 patients are reported today; while 152 are being held in intensive care units.
Panama has 131,315 people recovered and the active cases reported are 16,852.
From this last figure it is broken down that 15,314 people remain isolated in their homes; while 667 are in hospital hotels.
In the last 24 hours, 10,615 new tests have been carried out to detect the coronavirus among Panamanians that yielded a positivity of 11.8%.
NOTE:
Some critics have argued that the Minsa reported case fatality rate (number of COVID linked deaths / number of known cases) in reality could be much lower, as the number of reported cases does not necessarily reflect the truth, as the testing does not cover the whole population, and many cases go undetected. At the same time, the government can't report what they don't know, but readers should note that the numbers may tell a different story from the reality.
Also, how a "COVID death" is counted is unclear, as many of the deaths correspond to underlying previous conditions, such as cancer, blood diseases, other age related diseases etc., and are reported as COVID deaths since the patient also had the coronavirus. On the other hand, many viruses are known to lower the patient's immunity and expose them to other diseases. As an example most HIV/AIDS patients don't die from the virus itself, but from other derived diseases such as pneumonia or regular flu.
In lack of better information sources, PanaTimes continues to report the government (Minsa) announced figures. Readers are adviced to use their own judgement.