April 8, 2020
I’ve had some good feedback so far from these “Camp Fire Updates”, as one friend called it. It definitely motivates me to write more of them. This concept really came out of a concern I had for my good friend “Captain Chuck”. Chuck and his friend “Johnny”, who was visiting from the states, were galivanting around the country side of Chiriquí. I was trying to update Chuck and coax them into coming back to the city. He assured me that he was distancing himself from others etc., but I was still worried as Panama had also started a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Finally, on the following Wednesday, March 18, Panama announced that all flights in and out of Panama were going to be shut down as of Sunday, March 22, which was just 4 days away. I was quick to reach out to Chuck and Johnny to reel them back to the city immediately. They took another day on the drive, but they came back on Thursday. Johnny then had to decide on returning to the US early or he could hope for the best and wait it out in Panama. Luckily, Johnny was able to get out of Panama and head home, but not before having to purchase an expensive one-way ticket. Johnny barely got out on time the Saturday, but looking back, it was still the smart move for him to go home early.
WHEN WILL THIS BE OVER?
Well, the short answer is, “we have no idea”.
There is no date yet to lift the quarantine in Panama, “It will be gradual.”, said Panamanian President, Nito Cortizo. “…we haven´t reach the peak… we’re in that process… April is going to be a difficult month”
Panama hasn’t given any definite dates yet, but we’re definitely not getting out of quarantine any time soon; definitely not during the month of April. Last night Nito Cortizo only stated that it will happen “gradually”. I have a lot of respect for the Panamanian President, but it’s my opinion that he came up short on last night’s address to the people. I think the Panamanians think the same. There have been quite a few memes mocking the delivery of his speech and if that weren’t enough, he had to pause his address when the paper map they had up behind him fell over. It’s great that he’s taking the initiative to speak to the country personally, but he really needs to prepare more. Giving a presentation when the end result is a big nothing, doesn’t help either.
SCHOOLS WILL REMAIN CLOSED
Schools were temporarily closed on March 11 for a period of 30 days. Today, MEDUCA (Ministry of Education) informed everyone that they’re extending the suspension for another 15 days.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-ujwP1jZIX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
The Education Minister, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, sent a message Wednesday, April 8, to inform everyone that MEDUCA was extending the class suspension for an additional 15 days. The short extension was given as they awaited further information on possible dates to reopen the schools. She added that they’re following recommendations by the Health Minister, Rosario Turner and her team. Gorday de Villalobos stated that the country is going through a difficult time, which forced them to close the schools shortly after beginning the school year, but despite the situation, “education doesn’t stop”. She stressed that learning resources have been enabled via the education portal.
If ever there were an indicator that Panama isn’t ready to lift the quarantine, it’s this move to keep the schools closed for another couple of weeks. I do like how MEDUCA is handling this though. This short extension is smart and they´ve been updating everyone in a timely manner.
The biggest problem that I’ve seen isn’t with the teachers or the schools, it has mostly been with some of the poorer communities who simply do not have access to the resources needed to do live classes or online studies. Not having money for food means you’re not going to have money for a laptop either and I truly understand how that is having come from humble beginnings as well. What really upsets me though are some parents from the middle to higher classes who have asked that their respective schools outright cancel the online classes because “they don’t have time for that”. It’s not that they don’t have a laptop or an internet connection. Instead, they´ve finally realized that teaching isn’t as easy as they thought it was. Listen here misguided parents, everyone is on lockdown and nobody’s going anywhere! So, just sit down with your kids and do the work that you should have been doing with them all along. What also boggles my mind is that most of the live classes are only 40 minutes long. Hang in there. Do it for the kids!
HOLY WEEK SCHEDULES:
Panama celebrates their Holy Week from Thursday to Sunday. Every year, most companies will close their doors around noon on Thursday, will close Friday and Sunday. Some will open a half day on Saturdays and will close altogether.
My trusty assistant Yolanda was nice enough to piece together a PDF with the schedules of several businesses in Panama. Some have the Holy Week schedules as well. You can find the list at this link on our website:
This year with the mandatory total quarantine, most locations are doing exactly the same as always. Very specifically, we noted that Farmacia Javillo is closed on Friday and Sunday, but have a schedule of 7a.m. to 7p.m. for Saturday. Farmacia Metro is closed Friday and Sunday with a Saturday schedule of 630a.m. to 7p.m. (trying to sneak in that extra 30 minutes from the competition).
My favorite supermarket, if you haven’t noticed, Riba Smith, is going to be closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Although I didn’t get the update on all of the banks, each bank that I did find information on are going to close on Thursday at 1p.m. and will not reopen until Monday. The banks that I specifically found information on were: Banco General, Credicorps Bank, BAC, Banco Nacional, Global Bank and Caja de Ahorros. It´s safe to say that all banks in Panama will probably have the same schedule.
TEMPORARY CHANGE IN QUARANTINE FOR HOLY WEEK
Nito Cortizo announced late today that Panama is going to extend their mandatory full quarantine to include this Saturday.
He tweeted the following: “For the health security of the country and to preserve the life and health of Panamanians, we announce that during Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 of April, no one will be able to go out into the streets to comply with total quarantine.”
Basically, that means that with all of the other decrees and closures, if you’re a woman, your quarantine started…. well, it already started this evening! You can’t go out tomorrow, because only men are allowed out on Thursdays. You can’t go out on Friday because all banks, stores etc are closed due to Good Friday, and we now have Total Quarantine Saturday and Sunday. So, you are already on total quarantine until Monday during your normal allotted time. That means you need to write a shopping list, grab the closest male within your reach and move him out the door tomorrow if you need anything for the weekend. (Or ask a neighbor for some help.)
This new information also means that those businesses that previously reported hours of availability for Saturday are probably going to be closed.
STATUS UPDATE:
Panama has a new total of people they detected with the CoronaVirus of 2,528. Yesterday we ended the day with a total of 2,249 total people infected which would appear that in one day Panama detected 279 new cases. However, our Health Minister explained that we really only have 135 new cases and that the other 144 cases were those that had not been reported previously to the institution. That’s a little confusing, but I think she makes this clarification because although by definition these are all “new cases” that were not previously reported, she probably doesn’t want to show a spike in their statistics after seemingly having this under control.
Lourdes Moreno who is the chief of epidemiology at MINSA stated that 2,154 patients are under home isolation, of which 416 are in hotels.
There are 295 people hospitalized and 101 of them in ICU. There are now 63 people reported as having died from COVID19, but 16 have completely recovered.
Panama’s ratio of deaths to recoveries are now balanced towards a negative outcome, but it’s important to point out that it does take a lot longer to recover than the alternate way out. During the next few weeks, we’re going to see this ratio move towards more recoveries than deaths.
Stay safe… Stay healthy… And by all means STAY HOME!!…
Brett Mikkelson, CII, CPE
Director, B.M. Investigations, Inc. | M1 Consultants Inc
Mobile (+507) 6674-1183
brett@bminvestigations.com | www.bminvestigations.com
Proud Member of: Council of International Investigators (International), World Association of Detectives (International), Victory Services Club (London), Examinadors de Fraude Autorizados (Panama),
Alianza de Seguridad Empresarial (Panama)
Helpful information, thanks 👍
Thank you Philip! I hope to turn this in to an ongoing adventure.