Panama registered 1,163 new cases of covid-19 and 6 deaths in the last 24 hours, reported the Ministry of Health (Minsa).
With these figures, the country accumulates 142,465 infections and 2,823 deaths from this disease, and reports a case fatality rate of 2.0%.
According to the epidemiological report of the Minsa , 6,288 tests were carried out to detect covid-19, for a percentage of positivity of 18.5%.
There are a total of 18,819 active cases and 120,823 recovered patients.
Of the total active patients, there are 18,029 in home isolation, of which 17,468 are at home and 561 in hotels; while 790 patients are hospitalized, of them 645 in ward and 145 in intensive care.
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.