Panama and the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic

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Panama first country on continent to adopt vaccine Pass

Copa Airlines will be used in a test run of the Air Transport Association Pass

Posted 21/04/2021

Health Minister, Luis Francisco Sucre, reported that because travelers are presenting false negative tests, Panama has been forced to evolve in the epidemiological surveillance system and thus becomes the first country in America to use the IATA Travel mobile application - Pass.

This app is designed so that travelers have information on their tests to detect the virus and their vaccines and their certification.

Luis Oliva, director of the Government Innovation Authority (AIG), said that the application will be operational in May and a pilot operation will be carried out with the Panamanian airline Copa to test the tool.

IATA, as an international airline guild, makes a process for the inclusion of laboratories certified by governments at a global level, this mitigates the risk that the tests generated by its application are false, which will provide confidence that air transport does not become a vector of contagion. The app is available on iOS and from May 12 on the Google Play Store.

Since  March 31, over 750 travelers have given false information at the Tocumen International Airport regarding their location or residence.

This has been verified by health personnel who monitor the quarantine of travelers.

They were fined $500 to $1,000 and put at the disposition of Migration for not complying with the norms, said the Health Minister.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/travel/panama-first-country-on-continent-to-adopt-vaccine-pass

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Panama ranks high in virus testing

Posted 22/04/2021

“Panama has one of the lowest incidences of active cases, both in the Region and worldwide, ranking 86 (with 89 active cases per 100,000 inhabitants), within the countries that report data to the WHO ”, says  Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in its bi-weekly report.

However, with respect to the accumulated positives, taking into account the first contagion, which in the case of Panama was in March 2020, a high incidence of 8,313 patients per 100,000 inhabitants is reported. It is ranked number 13 in the world.

PAHO also explains that despite having one of the highest incidences of accumulated cases in America, the country is among the nations with the most tests applied, which allows the identification of a greater number of cases in the population.

“Until April 17 there are 535,921 tests per million inhabitants, being surpassed in volume of tests by Chile with 630,894 tests per million inhabitants, Canada with 781,484 tests per million inhabitants, and the United States with 1,193,593 tests per million inhabitants”, specifies in the report of the international organization.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/panama-ranks-high-in-virus-testing

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Latin America denounces vaccine hoarding

Posted 22/04/2021

AFP  - Latin American countries denounced the hoarding of anti-covid vaccines by the richest nations and called for equitable access to them, at an Ibero-American Summit in Andorra.

In the plenary session in Soldeu, a town in this European microstate located between Spain and France, the majority of Latin American leaders intervened electronically, and their messages coincided: not enough vaccines arrive, keys to ending the pandemic and beginning the recovery post-covid.

"The most developed countries have developed hoarding policies (...) in contradiction with human solidarity," said the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.

access to vaccines against the coronavirus is one of the key topics of this meeting, which was attended in person only by the presidents of Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, and the heads of government of Andorra, Portugal, and Spain, also represented by King Felipe VI.

Latin America, the second most mourning region in the world with more than 873,000 deaths and 27.4 million infections (including the Caribbean), has vaccinated less than 10% of its population when it returns to living a serious health situation, with daily records of deaths and infections in several countries.

"The Covax initiative, although valuable, is clearly insufficient and must be strengthened," said the Argentine, Alberto Fernández, referring to the mechanism to distribute vaccines, which has suffered delays and has delivered only three million doses to a Latin America with more of 600 million inhabitants.

The leaders still have to approve the final declaration of the summit, but the Ibero-American Secretary General, Rebeca Grynspan, announced that “a very strong call will come out of it, with a very robust political voice, to effectively ask for a much more equitable and universal distribution of vaccines ”.

Although the health issue united the region, Venezuela divided it, with several presidents charging against the government of Nicolás Maduro, who did not participate and was represented by his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/latin-america-denounces-vaccine-hoarding

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1,747 people  get AstraZeneca vaccine

Posted 23/04/2021

By noon on Friday, 1,747 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been applied.

On Wednesday, April 21, the Government sent a note to the pharmaceutical company for the acquisition of 73,000  new doses of its vaccine as, applications for the first delivery were oversubscribed. The new vaccines are expected to arrive in the country between two weeks and 30 days.

In Panama, the application of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is voluntary and men over 30 years old and women over 50 years old were summoned.

International media highlighted Thursday that the AstraZeneca vaccine which has been questioned in Europe and the United States has been well received in Panama,

The fast-car operation in the parking lots of the Rommel Fernández stadium works from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

There are seven lanes available, where it is also expected to receive the Pfizer vaccine for people who missed their appointments in the past vaccination days.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/1747-people-get-astrazeneca-vaccine

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PAHO calls for virus variants vigilance

Posted 23/04/2021

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has reiterated its call to the countries of the region to maintain vigilance and follow up on the variants of Covid-19, especially those they call of "concern."

 PAHO details that a total of 9 countries, including Panama, have at least confirmed cases of the variants of the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, which are in the group of "concern."

The director of the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies Juan Miguel Pascale reported that there are about 17 confirmed cases of the Brazilian variant (P.1 and P.2). In addition, one of the United Kingdom variant, another from New York, and another from California.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/paho-calls-for-virus-variants-vigilance

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Tocumen covid testing company reschedules

Posted 25/04/2021

The consortium in charge of testing passenger arrivals at Tocumen International Airport for covid-19 will reschedule the molecular tests performed with the Solana analyzer to "accurately determines a possible issue" in the cold chain of the product. "We continue to strengthen our technical and operational capacity to comply with the application of this test through which we seek to prevent the importation of new cases," said a statement on Friday, April  23. The company clarified that the covid-19 tests that are made to passengers from South America who arrive at the airport "are carried out in complete normality through the Sofia SARS antigen test."

After the detection of the Brazilian strain in Panama, the Government issued an Executive Decree on March 29, which it establishes that: All persons who have stayed or transited through South America, who enter the country by land or sea, using commercial or private means, must bring a PCR or negative antigen test a maximum of 48 hours before arrival. On arrival in the country, the decree indicates, any person who has stayed or transited through South America must carry out the PCR or antigen test, prior to their migration registration.

 

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/travel/tocumen-covid-testing-company-reschedules

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3,500 AstraZenaca jabs in four days

Posted 25/04/2021

From  Thursday, April 22 until noon on Sunday, April 25, 3,500 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 have been applied, in the fast-car,  operation located in the parking lots of the Rommel Fernández stadium.

On April 16, the first 36,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in the country. In the next three weeks, the arrival of 73,000 new doses is expected.

To apply them, according to the Ministry of Health (Minsa), another seven fast-cars will be established in the rest of the country, after the interest shown by the population.

The Ministry of Health announced that everything is ready to begin vaccination Monday, April 26, in the districts of Chame, Capira, and San Carlos.

In those districts, the first dose of vaccines will be applied to those over 60 years of age, pregnant women (with the authorization of their doctor) and teachers who work in the 8-2 and 8-3 circuits.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/3500-astrazenaca-jabs-in-four-days

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Moderator comment: This reply is posted as an exception to CL policy because of the impact on Chiriqui of the Costa Rican Covid-19 situation.

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Costa Rica faces health catastrophe

Posted 26/04/2021

Costa Rica is on the verge of the worst health catastrophe in its history due to Covid-19, said Mario Ruiz, medical manager of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), in charge of public health on Saturday, April 24 when the highest number of daily infections of Covid-19 was registered with a total of 1,830. The youngest person to date was also hospitalized: a 19-year-old woman.

In an extraordinary press conference, held virtually and with the presence of the President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado, the medical manager of the CCSS said that all medical centers in the country are on alert.

This is because the number of people who need to be hospitalized for Covid-19 continues to increase, to the point of being very close to saturating the intensive care units (ICU), in which there are 303 patients as of Saturday.

The maximum number of beds available in the ICU is 359, and out of every 5 people hospitalized for Covid-19, two have required intensive care.

Faced with this reality, Ruiz asked the population to avoid the collapse of the Costa Rican health system, increase biosecurity measures, as well as avoid leaving home unless strictly necessary.

President Alvarado joined the request. "We are facing a situation that calls us to redouble protection measures to contain between all and all the curve of cases that continues to grow," said the president.

After Holy Week, when the country registered an average of 400 daily cases, the cases tripled in less than three weeks, Ruiz explained.

Given this accelerated increase in a sustained way, it is materially impossible to meet the demand for severe covid patients and other pathologies that also compromise people's lives, he added.

Since the first patient hospitalized for Covid-19 in the country, critical moments have been experienced, Ruiz said. The first was in September 2020 (627 patients), the second in December 2020 (644 patients), and this week 662 hospitalizations were registered, projecting to be the most critical of all the moments experienced to date.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/health/costa-rica-faces-health-catastrophe

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Chiriqui moves on Costa Rica covid alert

Posted 26/04/2021

As a preventive action and seeking to stop possible infections in an area with high traffic of national and foreign people, the governor of Chiriquí, Juan Carlos Muñoz Franceschi met on Monday with the regional directors of Health, Migration, Customs, and the National Border Service (Senafront) to coordinate actions with the merchants of Paso Canoa.

Jorge Gobea, head of the western area of the Senafront, explained that the strategy will focus on permanent surveillance and monitoring, by the authorities and the security forces to comply with biosafety measures inside and outside business premises.

In addition, the timely identification of contagion risk factors and the immediate activation of mitigation mechanisms will be carried out, which will be presented to the Paso Canoas Chamber of Commerce, in a meeting, on Tuesday.

Gladys Novoa, regional director of the Ministry of Health, reported that the national standard is clear, every person who enters Panamanian territory must have a swab with a negative result, in less than 48 hours and adopt current sanitary and biosafety measures in Panama.

 

https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/chiriqui-moves-on-costa-rica-covid-alert