Panama reports 1,755 cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours
In the last 24 hours, Panama registered a total of 1,755 new cases of COVID-19, raising the number of infections to 160,287, according to the Ministry of Health of Panama.
Deaths from the virus in the country increased to 3,018, after accounting for 16 new deaths. The case fatality rate is at 1.9%.
In the last 24 hours, 10,973 tests were carried out to detect coronavirus, for a positivity percentage of 16.0%.
There are a total of 140,976 recovered patients.
According to the epidemiological report of the Minsa, active cases add up to 15,243, that total there are 14,563 in home isolation and 680 in hotels; while 1,050 patients are hospitalized, of them 898 in ward and 152 in intensive care.
According to the age group, patients between 20 and 59 years of age 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 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.