The epidemiological report revealed this afternoon that Panama registered 3,348 new cases of COVID-19, which raised the number of infections to 203,295.
The report from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) indicates that in the last 24 hours there were 42 new deaths, thus raising the number of deaths from coronavirus to 3,481. The lethality of the virus remains at 1.7%.
Regarding the recovered the country until this Thursday there are 168,238; while active cases rose to 31,576.
Of this number in the country there are 29,269 confined to their homes and 744 are staying in hospital hotels.
While 1,390 hospitalized patients are reported in beds and 173 are confined in intensive care units.
In the last 24 hours, some 16,162 new tests were applied, which returned a positivity of 20.7%.
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, the method used in Panama to define 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.