April 13, 2020
This weekend, most of Panama was graced by the not-so-subtle change from summer to winter with several rain storms which could only be described as “Palos de Agua” (torrential downpours). Colon and Bocas del Toro have had rain on and off in the last week, but Panama City and the Azuero finally got a taste of the same during the Easter/Passover holiday. On Easter Sunday, Panama province had rain in the afternoon and today, the “palo de agua” hit us before 6:00a.m. and lasted for a solid three hours. I know Pedasi also had their fair share of rain in the afternoon as well.
The rains of Panama are symbolic as the end of a summer that always seems too short. They also represent a cleansing or sorts, where the streets flood and the rivers push its accumulation of trash to the ocean. Nothing majestic to be seen until the waters recede and the sun shines bright, exposing the first blades of green grass from its once brown, brittle lot.
The world is going through a major change and a massive cleansing with the CoronaVirus. To be clear, the cleansing I’m referring to is the change in attitude and mentality when it comes to how we conduct our day to day rituals and how we treat others. Never before have I had to scrub down immediately upon arriving home, even to the point of shunning my children until I’ve gone through “the process”. Never before did I carry rubbing alcohol around in my car, or masks and disposable gloves just to go to the bank. Our minds are being cleansed of easier times when we could just come from the streets and plop on the bed after a long day’s work. We are voluntarily reprogramming ourselves to a new way and most don’t even realize it. I’m not talking about some conspiracy theory of big government tricking us into going along with their mystical, diabolical plans. What I am saying is that we are all together creating this new way of life by radically changing our habits. People are creatures of habit and we’re very adaptable. It only takes a few months for a new trend to become habit. We may never shake someone’s hand again or stand close together in groups of 10 or more. However, hopefully we will get used to and love having mandatory meals together as a family. Hopefully, we continue to be less selfish to our neighbors who are less fortunate. Hopefully, through this, we’ll learn and continue to put pride aside and ask for the help we need.
TOP NEWS and TIDBITS:
- As numbers go, only 340 people were “retained” this weekend. That’s a sign of improvement, especially for the last day of a long weekend. Detentions started back on March 18 when the first curfews established weren’t being adhered to. Between then and April 11, a total of 25 days, Panama registered 11,043 retentions. That’s an average of 441 per day and Panama has reported almost 800 people in just one day during those 25 days; “only” 340 is definitely an accomplishment.
- The Attorney General of the Nation, Eduardo Ulloa, confirmed that between March and April they have carried out more than 275 corpse removals, of which five cases were positive in Covid-19 and another five are under investigation as suspected cases. He explained that these were cases detected outside hospitals and that this situation has forced the officials in charge of the removal of corpses to be equipped with specialized equipment to avoid possible contagion with the virus. He added that a whole protocol has been established with the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelfc) for these cases that includes the disinfection of vehicles and facilities where the tests are carried out. He explained that four officials of the Public Ministry have already tested positive for Covid-19, to whom quarantine measures and the recommendations of the Ministry of Health were applied.
- Javier Nieto, infectologist and member of the Advisory Committee of COVID-19 in Panama, announced that tests for the detection of this virus could be carried out in the country next week, the results of which would now be delivered in only 45 minutes. “For the week of April 20, we will have 21 health facilities with simpler methods, which will give results in about 45 minutes. Currently the results are delivered in 2 hours,”. Nieto clarified that currently everything is centralized at the Gorgas Institute and that the teams’ capacity is to analyze 50 samples in two hours, but due to the accumulation of evidence, due to the overcrowding, this caused the delay in delivery of the tests. However, these new more rapid tests will allow them to know more quickly if people are infected with coronavirus or for those who are analyzing their recovery, it would be known if they have developed any immunity to the virus. Nieto points out that between 500 to 750 tests are performed per day, a figure that they will seek to expand with these new tests.
- The company Fine Research, with offices in six Latin American countries, led a survey which interviewed 2,253 doctors in 13 countries in the region in order to obtain comparative information on the medical perspective of the pandemic in Latin America. In this evaluation, Panama is one of the Latin American countries that presented the most positive results. For example, doctors consider that they have received better training to combat the Covid-19 crisis by the health authorities, and they also seem to agree 100% that the most effective way to counter the pandemic is confinement. The doctors do not look poorly upon the hospital infrastructure or the capacity of the system to contain the crisis, either with or without the availability of beds, fans or protective equipment. The danger of the health system collapsing in the face of the pandemic is present in most countries that see the system in crisis in days or weeks. The pandemic practically reminded everyone of the fragility both in the medical infrastructure and in the capacity to respond with supplies and equipment to face public health emergencies. Unlike other countries, Panamanian doctors are more confident of the system’s responsiveness. They´re more conservative about their thoughts on any risk of collapse, since they consider that the country´s hospital infrastructure is prepared to face the pandemic. As for how long the Panamanian doctors feel that this crisis will last, the panamanian doctors consulted are divided. 31% say it will take 31-60 days for reactivation, while an equal percentage believe that it will take twice as long.
- Lourdes Moreno, head of epidemiology at MINSA, pointed out that according to the age group, patients between the ages of 20 to 50 continue to be the most affected in terms of infection with presently 2,737 infected patients, however, most deaths correspond to those over 60 years of age (73 deceased of the 94 as of the date of this report).
- The most affected regions continue to be Panama Metro (1,495), Panama Oeste (730), San Miguelito (388) and Panamá Norte (303). The townships with the most cases are Arraiján and San Francisco.
- The hotline 169 has received 2,719 calls in the last hours, of which 78 were false, despite the sanctions established for those who practice this irresponsibility. For its part, the ROSA application has attended 53,373 requests since March 17.
STATUS UPDATE:
Panama has detected another 72 CoronaVirus cases for a total of 3,472. MINSA stated that 2,983 patients are under home isolation, of which 694 are in hotels.
There are 334 people hospitalized and 105 of them are in ICU. There are now 94 people reported as having died from COVID19, but 61 have completely recovered.
A total of 15,567 tests have been made and of those 11,755 turned out to be negative.
In the last 24 hours, there have been 32 new cases of full recoveries and 8 new deaths. This is precisely the change of ratio in cases of recoveries and deaths that we needed to see. In fact, this is better news than what I had expected. I’m now expecting that the following days won´t be as good as todays numbers were, but we’re seemingly headed in the right direction.
END NOTE:
Last week I suggested that we could look for ways to do something special for the local Police. I was pumped and prepared to start my “Cookies for Cops” project. Interestingly enough, as I looked to my peers for more suggestions, we made contact with our local law enforce in Alcalde Diaz. They were grateful for the gesture but in good form asked that we direct our good intentions to those who would actually need help in these times. They pointed out that the police were still receiving their salaries and benefits, but that perhaps there were people within our immediate community that may need help but were too proud to admit it. I’ll be working further on what we can do, but in the meantime, we’ve change to the original project name from “Cookies for Cops” to “Kookies for Kids”.
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
Proud Member of: Council of International Investigators (President 2018-2019), World Association of Detectives (International Member), Victory Services Club (London), Examinadors de Fraude Autorizados (Panama),Alianza de Seguridad Empresarial (Panama)
