Panama exceeds 121,000 cases of COVID-19 and reports 2,511 deaths
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) reported that Panama total number of deaths from COVID-19 raises to 2,511, and with 494 new cases, the country registers 121,296 infections of the virus at the national level.
According to the epidemiological report for Tuesday, October 13, 97,297 clinically recovered patients are reported.
Over the last 24 hours 5,131 tests were applied, with of positivity of 9.6% and 9 new deaths have been registered, maintaining the case fatality rate of 2.1%.
Active patients total 20,697, 20,247 people are reported in home isolation, of which 450 are in hospital hotels. The hospitalized number 791 and of them 667 are in ward and 124 in ICU.
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.