Panama reports 1,077 new COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths
The epidemiological report of this Monday, November 30, reported that in Panama some 1,077 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the last 24 hours, which brought the accumulated infections to 165,806.
In addition to this, the report from the Ministry of Health (Minsa) indicates that there have been about 19 new deaths, raising the number of deaths from this coronavirus to 3,079.
The number of recovered in Panama is 144,462 and active cases are reported in 18,265.
Regarding this last statistic, it is indicated that 16,427 people, diagnosed with the virus, are isolated at home; and another 659 remain in hospital hotels.
In addition, in the country there are 1,012 patients hospitalized in wards and another 167 are confined in intensive care units as a result of COVID-19.
In the last 24 hours, some 7,061 new tests have been applied, which have yielded a positivity of 15.2%.
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, 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 highly compromise any figures mentioned above.
In lack of better information sources, PanaTimes continues to report the government (Minsa) announced figures. Readers are adviced to use their own judgement.