The epidemiological report of the Ministry of Health of Panama (Minsa) reports for this Tuesday, December 1, the detection of 1,505 new cases of COVID-19, which raises the number of accumulated infections to 167,311.
The report indicates that there were about 19 deaths in the last 24 hours, which increases to 3,098 deaths from this new coronavirus in the country. The lethality of the virus is 1.9%.
In Panama some 145,518 people have been diagnosed as recovered; while the number of active cases is 18,695.
On this statistic it is detailed that about 16,848 people are kept confined to their homes and another 640 were accommodated in hospital hotels.
In addition, 1,041 patients were admitted to hospital wards and about 166 remain confined in intensive care units.
In the last 24 hours, some 9,138 tests were applied to detect COVID-19, which reflected a positivity of 16.5%.
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.