This projection was echoed by the former representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) and specialist in Public Health, Jorge Luis Prosperi, who said that they are estimates that come from the Institute of Health Measurement and Evaluation of the University of Washington, in U.S.
Based on these estimates, Prosperi who is also a member of the Advisory Health Council – created to advise the Presidency of the Republic – considers that the system's attention capacity, both on an outpatient basis and in hospitalization and intensive care wards, will overflow.
Prosperi stressed that the 51,408 confirmed cases until last Friday represent 1.2% of the national population.
These figures show that the epidemic in the country is still out of control, he said. Last night, 52,261 infections were counted.
When the subject is evaluated by area, the statistics of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) reflect that there are some provinces with a higher infected population than others. For example, the province of Panama has 1.83% of its total infected population; Panama Oeste follows, with 1.44%, and Darién, with 1.64%. Colón and Bocas del Toro, almost 1% each, where they are now evaluating to establish a quarantine.
For Prosperi, the increase in cases is directly related to citizen behavior, which persists in not complying with the indicated measures to prevent contagion. As a consequence, there are 1,204 cases accumulated per 100,000 inhabitants.
It is clear that the death rate is directly related to the increase in the number of cases. But, although the case fatality rate remains around 2%, we increase to 24.31 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants [eighth place among the countries of the Americas], which is serious and forces us to thoroughly analyze the causes of the high number of deaths, he pointed out.
For this, it is recommended to identify and correct, any shortcomings in the treatment received by patients, from hotel-hospitals, hospital wards and intensive care units, since specifically at those points something negative could be happening, and the authorities are obliged to discover and resolve it.
Despite this bleak picture, I still think we are still in time to curb that escalation of cases and deaths from Covid-19, as long as we stay focused and each one does his part responsibly. The health sector must redouble its effort to reach 4,000 tests a day and join the organized community in the interventions, to detect, isolate, and track, he concluded.