This content was published on 09 August 2021 – 02:05
Panama City, Aug 8 (EFE) .- Panama accumulates as of this Sunday 442,295 confirmed cases of covid-19 and 6,906 deaths after more than 16 months of pandemic, and is preparing to include the private health system in the national immunization program against the disease that started last January 20.
The Ministry of Health (Minsa) stressed that from Monday, August 9, a total of 9 private hospitals in the capital will administer vaccines, at the moment only from Pfizer, which receive priority groups including children 12 years of age and older with chronic diseases.
This initiative aims to “speed up the vaccination process and inoculate the largest number of people”, especially when Panama is experiencing a third “attenuated” pandemic wave compared to the first two, which can be complicated by the arrival of the contagious delta variant.
“We already have a community case” in the western province of Chiriquí, on the border with Costa Rica, “eye, let’s not get confused, because the delta variant is giving problems to the United States, which is a power, to India, Colombia, the United Kingdom” Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre declared on Friday.
In Panama, a country of 4.28 million inhabitants, 3,142,065 doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine have been administered from January to date, which together have delivered little more to the country of 4 million units.
This same Sunday, 163,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived, which has dispatched a total of 681,600 since last April, a preparation that is administered to people over 30 years of age.
Panama aspires to vaccinate 70% of its population against covid this year and for this it has committed the purchase of 7.2 million doses from Pfizer, 1.1 million from AstraZeneca and 1.1 million through the Covax multilateral mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO), according to official data.
This Sunday, 979 new cases and 12 deaths were reported from covid-19, and 10,963 tests were applied to detect the disease that yielded a positivity of 8.9%, above the 5% or less that the WHO considers a control parameter of the pandemic.
There are 101 patients hospitalized in intensive care units (ICU) and 436 in the general ward, while 10,383 are isolated in their homes and 308 in hotels, indicated the daily epidemiological report of the Minsa. EFE
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