President Cortizo who on Friday, March 20  ordered the closure of commercial establishments and companies (with some exceptions) throughout the country, for 30 days, to slow the advance of Covid-19 has added a new decree covering employment contracts,

Workers are not obliged to provide the service and employers are not obliged to pay wages."

The workers affected by the  measure will be included in the lists of beneficiaries of the programs established by the Executive, " to mitigate the lack of regular income, while the suspension lasts."

A plan, labeled 'Panama Solidario' consists of the delivery of "vouchers" to "informal workers, people who are unemployed, regardless of whether they lost their job due to this crisis or not",. 'Panamá Solidario' has an initial injection of $50 million.

The companies that have closed may also request the economic benefits dictated by the Government, as a result of the state of emergency.

Once the emergency declaration ends, the workers will return to their jobs, " under the same conditions established in the employment contract in force at the time of the suspension."

For the rest of the companies, the Ministry of Labor has proposed solutions to the crisis, such as early vacations and teleworking reports La Prensa.

 New cases of Covid-19 disease began to emerge in the provinces. The Friday situation report theMinistry of Health (Minsa)  shows a total of 200 cases, of which 10 are in the provinces of Chiriquí, Veraguas, Coclé, and Colón.

The Minister of Health, Rosario Turner, announced that if the population "does not become aware" of staying at home and following the prevention measures disclosed, the government must take "stronger" measures.