The Ministry of Health (Minsa) also indicates that there have been 16 new deaths due to the coronavirus; which increases the number of deaths in the country to 3,114.

In Panama, in the last 24 hours, some 10,892 new tests were applied, which yielded a positivity of 18.6%.

Currently some 146,576 people have recovered from this virus and another 19,649 maintain the diagnosis of active cases.

Of this number, it was reported that some 18,430 patients are confined to their homes and 633 were housed in hospital hotels.

While hospitalized total 1,219, of them; 1,055 in hospital wards and another 164 are confined in intensive care units.

Visitors spread the virus

The General Director of Health, Nadja Porcell, reminded the population that visiting friends or relatives in the city and in the interior, in addition to clandestine parties, have become one of the main contagion scenarios for Covid-19.

It is in these types of social visits, where the possibility of contagion with cousins, uncles, nephews, brothers, friends or other people is generated, he said. She explained that what happens is that since you are in an environment of closeness or familiarity, trust is generated and people remove their mask, neglect or relax biosecurity measures and that is why contagions occur.

For his part, the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, stressed that for the up and coming Christmas and New Year parties it is preferable that all celebrations take place within the home bubble and without the presence of other people, even if it is a close family.

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.