Panama added 792 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising 127,227 the total number of infections, according to the Ministry of Health.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 in the country rose to 2,612 with a total of 15 new deaths, maintaining a fatality rate of 2.05%.
Of the total active cases, 20,078 patients are at home and 469 in hospital hotels; while 670 are hospitalized, of them 550 in ward and 120 in intensive care.
There are a total of 103,398 clinically recovered patients.
7,748 new tests were carried out to diagnose the coronavirus, for a percentage of positivity of 10.2%.
According to the age group, patients aged 20 to 59 years continue to be the most affected in terms of contagion, however, most deaths correspond to those over 60 years of age.
NOTE:
Some critics have argued that the Minsa reported case fatality rate (number of COVID linked deaths / number of known cases) in reality could 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 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.
In lack of better information sources, PanaTimes continues to report the government (Minsa) announced figures. Readers are adviced to use their own judgement.