While the  number of patients  in Panama with  coronavirus has  climbed to 43   according to the national director of Health, of the Ministry of Health ( Minsa) Nadja Porcell  another official laments that  large numbers of people are heading for the beaches “as if this was a vacation.”

Five of these patients are hospitalized, two in critical condition and three in wards. There are also 37 people in home isolation who have mild symptoms, Porcell said.

820 tests have been carried out and 43 have tested positive for Covid-19.

Positive patients with coronavirus are 23 women and 20 men  The largest number of affected people are between 40 and 59 years old.

During the daily press  conference, the Vice Minister of Health, Luis Sucre, announced that the director of the Gorgas Institute, Juan Pascal, will be in charge of a network that will grow the tests to diagnose Covid - 19.

The medical facilities where this network will operate are: San Miguel Arcángel (San Miguelito), Children's Hospital, CSS Metropolitan Complex, Santo Tomás Hospital, National Oncological Institute, Nicolás Solano (La Chorrera), Cecilio Castillero (Herrera), Luis Chicho Fábrega (Veraguas) and José Domingo de Obaldía (Chiriquí).

The Ministry  will ask private hospitals to acquire the necessary kits to carry out the diagnostic tests.

Sucre emphasized that public and private hospitals must communicate the tests to the Gorgas Institute, the only rector who will inspect and validate the results.

He said that the Minsa today added 200 doctors and nurses to start home visits. Operations were also started to enforce  an Executive Decree, which increases health measures to counter the spread of the virus.

Through this decree, activities such as: fairs; conferences; cultural, religious and sporting events and concerts across the country are can.celed

Panama was the 112th country that presented cases of Covid-19 and we had the opportunity to learn from the experience of 111 nations that before us had to face this virus, said Sucre.

He added that discipline in many countries, such as China, helped decrease cases, and given this we need to abide by the laws and regulations that have been given to control Covid-19 as soon as possible.

Enrique Lau Cortés, director of the Social Security Fund (CSS) spoke about the importance of people not moving and staying in their residences.

He made a special appeal to young people, because they have parents, grandparents, and if they he do not take the measures, they transmit the coronavirus infection and put  them in danger. "In this population, the consequences of infection are fatal."

He added that the rest of the population should stay at home. We have seen in the networks, a great mobilization inland to the beaches, as if we were on vacation. The country faces a dangerous situation, "he recalled.

In this regard, Sucre asked people to stay home, because they do not want to go to the extent of ordering "a sanitary fence in the country." In other words, preventing the passage of people from the capital to the interior and vice versa.