The Ministry of Health (Minsa) of Panama reported through its epidemiological report 1,511 new cases of covid-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of infections to 179,230.
Meanwhile, 19 deaths were reported for a cumulative total of 3,212 deaths from this virus, with a case fatality of 1.8%.
7,970 tests were applied to detect covid-19, for a positivity of 19.0%. A total of 988,059 tests have been carried out, of which 805,279 have been negative.
There are 154,330 recovered patients and 21,688 active cases to date.
Of the total active patients, 20,406 are in isolation, 19,650 are at home and 756 are in hospital hotels.
While, 1,282 are hospitalized, of them 1,107 in ward and 175 in intensive care units.
NOTE:
Some observers 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.
There have also been reports on the inaccuracy of the PCR test, which would highly compromise any figures mentioned above.
In lack of better information sources, PanaTimes continues to report the government (Minsa) announced figures. Readers are adviced to use their own judgement.