In the last 24 hours, Panama registered 708 new cases of covid-19 and 22 deaths due to this disease, reported the Ministry of Health (Minsa) Thursday 11 February.
With these figures, the country accumulates a total of 330,075 cases and 5,572 deaths.
The case fatality rate is 1.7%.
8,293 tests were carried out in the last hours to detect covid-19. In total, 1,770,793 tests have been carried out, of which 1,437,168 have been negative.
The test positivity rate is at 8.5%.
According to the epidemiological report of the Minsa , to date there are 20,893 active cases and there are 303,610 recovered patients.
In isolation there are 19,187 patients, of them 18,779 are in their residences and 408 in hospital hotels.
While 1,706 are hospitalized, of which 1,500 are in the ward and 206 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, 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 compromise the figures mentioned above.
In lack of better information sources, PanaTimes continues to publish reports with the government (Minsa) announced figures. Readers are adviced to use their own judgement. We are happy to publish more accurate reports, if they become available to us or our contributors.