A total 1,206 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the last 24 hours, raising the number of infections to 154,783, according to the Ministry of Health of Panama.
Deaths with the virus in the country increased to 2,957, after accounting for 11 new deaths. The case fatality rate decreased to 1.9%. The total fatality rate to population is 0.07%.
In the last hours, 9,666 tests were carried out to detect coronavirus, for a percentage of positivity of 12.5%.
There are a total of 135,962 recovered patients.
According to the epidemiological report of the Minsa, of the active patients there are 14,239 in home isolation and 699 in hotels; while 926 patients are hospitalized, of them 780 in ward and 146 in intensive care.
According to the age group, patients between 20 and 59 years of age continue to be the most affected in terms of contagion, however, most deaths correspond to those over 60 years of age.
NOTE:
Some critics have argued that the Minsa reported case fatality rate (number of COVID linked deaths / number of known cases) in reality should 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 also 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.