Covid-19: Panama accumulates 443,718 cases and 6,918 deaths (August 10)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Panamanian health authorities on Tuesday reported 900 new Covid-19 cases and 6 deaths from the disease, bringing the total to 443,718 confirmed infections and 6,918 deaths in over 16 months of pandemic.

There are 119 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and 423 in wards, while 10,153 remain in home isolation and 311 in hotels, for a total of 11,006 active (contagious) cases.

A total of 425,794 patients have recovered from the disease since March 9, 2020, when the first case of infection was reported in Panama, where Covid-19 has a lethality rate of 1.6%, one of the lowest in Latin America.

Yesterday, 11,588 tests were performed to detect Covid cases, with a positivity rate of 7.7%. In total, 3,466,213 tests have been performed in Panama to date.

With a population of 4.28 million, 3,187,124 doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Panama since January to date, which together have delivered just over 4 million units to the country, according to the Ministry of Health (MINSA).

Panama on Tuesday received a batch of 375,570 Pfizer vaccine doses, part of a total of 3,695,890 delivered since last January, while on Sunday another batch of 163,200 AstraZeneca doses was delivered from a total of 681,600 since last April.

The Central American country is experiencing a 3rd milder pandemic wave compared to the first 2, authorities said yesterday. However, epidemiological surveillance has been reinforced due to the recent detection of 9 community cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Panamanian Minister of Health Luis Francisco Sucre stressed that in many parts of the country the effective reproduction rate – or Rt – of the virus has decreased as well as the mortality rate, which he said “indicates that Panama has been gradually and positively altering the behavior of the pandemic.”

In this respect, authorities on Tuesday announced a new relaxation of restrictions established in several parts of the country to control the spread of the virus, including quarantines and nighttime curfews.