This represents a decrease of 18.5% in new cases this week. In addition, the statistics provided by the Ministry of Health (Minsa) reflect that there were 37 deaths, six less than the previous one.

The public health specialist Jorge Luis Prosperi indicated that during the last 12 weeks cases have decreased, but that we should not trust ourselves with the dangerous Delta variant.

58% of the total 9.2 million doses of vaccines purchased by the country have been applied.

A week with fewer than 300 new cases per day

The epidemiological week closed yesterday with an average of 290 cases - in total, 2,28 - and six deaths a day due to Covid-19, according to the Minsa reports, between September 12 and 18.

This is a slight decrease compared to the previous week (September 5 to 11), when there were 2,491 new cases. In addition, there were 43 deaths in that period.

In the words of the public health specialist Jorge Luis Prosperi, the Covid-19 epidemic in Panama shows a clear trend of decreasing cases for 11 weeks.

"Although we maintain a successful vaccination program, we cannot claim victory because the dangerous Delta variant is circulating in our country, which forces us to redouble compliance with public health measures and advance with the mass vaccination that we are carrying out" , the doctor pointed out.

Another indicator that Prosperi highlighted is that positivity clearly decreased, reporting 5% or less, which brings us closer to the goal established by the World Health Organization to control the epidemic.

"We are obliged to maintain the daily effort in traceability and strengthen genomic sequencing to have more certainty about the variants that are circulating," he explained.

Vaccination

During this weekend, the teams from the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Fund traveled to circuits 6-2 and 6-3 in the province of Herrera, where the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine are applied / BioNTech, as well as second doses from AstraZeneca / University of Oxford.

The vaccination centers are located in the capitals of the districts, but also, according to the Health authorities, some areas of difficult access were included to attract the population with pending vaccines.

Meanwhile, in the province of Coclé, in circuit 2-1, 186 doses of the pharmaceutical duo Pfizer / BioNTech were applied yesterday.

In Panama, 5 million 332 thousand 582 doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 have been applied, according to the report of the Expanded Program on Immunization. Of this total, 4 million 588 thousand 346 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 744 thousand 236 doses of the AstraZeneca / University of Oxford have been placed.

The Minsa also reported that as of Monday, September 20, the curfew measure will be completely lifted in the provinces of Darien and Bocas del Toro and the Guna Yala region. This is stated in Executive Decree No. 846 of September 16, 2021, which has already been published in the Official Gazette.

For that same date, indicated the health entity, it will be allowed in churches, temples, parishes, chapels and centers of worship, the capacity of 50% of the general population not vaccinated, and a capacity of 80% in the population with a complete vaccination scheme .

In both cases, the physical distance of one meter between people will be maintained. Those who live in the same residence may be together, but keeping a distance of one meter from the others.

In this regard, the Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, asked the religious communities to prepare their internal health committees to be vigilant in compliance with the measures and capacity.