However, on Thursday April 30, when the protests escalated, the number of detainees rose to 760 (about 31 captures per hour). Some areas where protests occurred were Colón, Panamá Oeste and Panamá. Doctors from the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health state that although there is an economic crisis due to Covid-19, in many of the areas where there are protests the Rt (contagions per person) is above 1, and in 14 days there could be more people infected. Juan Pino, Minister of Security, said that there are people who go out on the streets without any mask protection. He explained that in April there were 18,378 withholdings.

Number of people violating quarantine grows

“I am very concerned about what happened this week with the protests. Let's not lose in a second what we have gained in six weeks of fighting against the Covid-19 ”. This warning came from Julio Sandoval, one of the doctors who is part of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), who stated that this scenario could impact the number of infections registered in the next 15 days.

Protests

This week the Inter-American highway in the Loma Cová sector, Arraiján, became one of the main centers of protests. Residents of Valle del Sol, La Cascada, La Paz and La Nubes closed the four lanes of the route for several hours. They demanded vouchers and food bags from the Panama Solidario plan. There were also claims in Torrijos Carter, San Miguelito; in Rana De Oro and Montería, from the township of Pedregal, as well as in Felipillo, in eastern Panama.

In fact, some of these protests were staged in areas where the Rt (number of infections per person) is still not below 1. Such is the case of Colón, where clusters of new SAR-CoV-2 cases have been reported, which suggests that the one infected protestor is more likely to infected several people, as they are in close contact.

Health Minister Rosario Turner also said this week: that if the quarantine ended today, regions such as Colón, Veraguas and Coclé would have problems lifting social isolation measures due to the number of cases.

In another region where protests were notable this week was in eastern Panama (Tocumen, Pedregal, December 24, and Pacora). A week ago, this area also had its Rt above 1 due to certain clusters, that is, conglomerates of new cases in some communities.

The doctor and former representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Jorge Luis Prosperi, said he understood that some percentage of the population feels overwhelmed by the lack of income and the economic crisis, But he considered that this way of demonstrating, is far from solving the COVID-19 issue, what it does is increase the problem in the country.

"Obviously, the risk of contagion among these groups that protest is high and there is no doubt about that," he said.

For Prosperi, what remains now is to strictly follow up on the people who participated in these demonstrations and who come to test positive.

"We are close to progressively lifting the quarantine, but if there are people who are violating the measure, in 14 or 21 days, when the symptoms of the disease appear, we will have many positives again," he concluded.

Detentions on the rise

Although there is no exact number of how many people protested and what may impact the spread of the new coronavirus in the country, the reports of the Security authorities give an idea of ​​what the scenario was this week.

For example, this Monday, when the majority of the population was complying with social isolation measures, the Ministry of Security reported that 362 people were detained for violating the quarantine in the country. Of that total, 252 withholdings occurred in Panama, Panama West and Colon.

Three days later, when the protests intensified (on Thursday, April 30), 760 people were detained, that is, twice as many people on the street. Of this group, most of the catches were in Panama and Colón, while in the interior of the country, Chiriquí and Veraguas are the provinces with the highest amount of withholdings for breaching social isolation.