The new coronavirus arrived in Panama  before the Panama carnival festivities  the carnivals - from February 21 to 26 - and, as suspected, the death of Norato González - on March 8 – the principal of the Monsignor Francisco Beckmann school, is a of the key piece of the puzzle reports La Prensa

Juan Pino, Minister of Public Security, released on Friday, March 13,  details of the "traceability" of the virus. He reported that before February 21, the date on which an academic council was held at the Beckmann, González had contact with another teacher on campus, who had been in Europe shortly before. That teacher visited Spain, Germany, Croatia, France and England.

The date of the meeting between González and the traveler was reported as between February 14 and 15.

According to the minister, the teacher condoled the principal for the death of his mother. According to Beckmann staff, González's mother died on January 20.

The teacher who was in Europe, whose name was not revealed, was not the only one who was abroad: 16 of the 206 teachers from this campus has were traveling recently.

Minister  Pino said that the teacher who was in several European countries "became ill"  and if she had contact with González between February 14 and 15, she could have infected him at that time, that is, before the carnivals. On Friday  it was revealed that Norato González was in Chiriquí at those parties reports La Prensa,

However, authorities did not realize that the epidemic was in the country. Before the party, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) had said that they were ready for when the first case was reported.

On February 18, for example, it  released a statement reporting that the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies "was ready to diagnose Covid-19 in 3 hours." It also reported that until then Gorgas had carried out 14 tests, the results of which were negative.

On February 23, the Minsa reported that at o the Tocumen Airport, it had set up a provisional evacuation area for passengers with symptoms of the virus. "All passengers verified so far have a temperature below 37.5, indicating that there is no presence of the virus," said the institution.

Optimistic statements presenting  Panama as a country with a prepared and safe health system came the following days. Different authorities, from the Minister of Health, Rosario Turner, down, sent messages emphasizing that Panama was "free of suspected cases."

Meanwhile, on February 27, when the virus was probably already roaming the streets, Minister Turner presented the action plan against Covid-19. That day, Turner promised that "when the first case arrived" it would be handled with all the sanitary protocols studied by the Minsa and all the biosafety precautions to avoid contagion to more people within a hospital center.

Chronology  
If the evolution of the virus is taken into account, probably on that date (February 27) González had already been infected for a week.

The infectologist Xavier Sáez-Llorens, member of the Minsa coronavirus advisory committee, explained that the patient begins to feel symptoms on the fifth or sixth day. While on the eighth or ninth day it worsens and the person who cannot survive usually dies in the third week. "For a person to die, it must take at least 10 to 21 days," said the doctor.

On Monday, March 2, the school year began and, the next day, the director of the Beckmann was admitted to the Dr. Arnulfo Arias Madrid hospital complex of the Social Security Fund, where he died on Sunday, March 8.

The alarms went off on Monday, March 9, when Beckmann teachers and students protested on the street about the poor conditions of the school: dust, pigeon feces, fiberglass because there were at least nine teachers with "respiratory symptoms".

That day, the campus was ordered to be closed and, at night, the minister announced "the first case of coronavirus" in Panama, but it was still not - still Norato González: the minister referred to a 40-year-old woman old who arrived from Spain the day before.

González's case entered the records a day later, on March 10, when the Minsa finally recognized that González died of a coronavirus, and two other teachers at the Beckmann had caught it. However, the number of cases in that school grows: until Friday night, seven patients infected with Covid-19 were linked to the school.

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