A key indicator of the COVID-19 pandemic is the positivity of cases, which is 25.4% in the country, when the threshold recommended by the World Health Organization to assess that the pandemic is controlled is 5%.

The Department of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) details that in the last epidemiological week, No.51 (from December 17 to 23) 3,020 COVID-19 tests were carried out.

The epidemiology document highlights that 766 new cases of the respiratory disease were confirmed, of which 716 cases are active (673 in isolation, 42 hospitalized in the ward, and 2 in intensive care units).

The positivity that occurs this week is higher than that registered from December 18 to 24, 2022, which was 12%, out of a total of 23,498 tests. Although the number of tests was greater than those registered this year.

Don’t self-medicate 
The head of the Epidemiology department of the Minsa Lourdes Moreno reiterated the call to Panamanians not to self-medicate and to go to health centers for tests if they have any respiratory symptoms, which she said are common on this date, but that it can be COVID-19, influenza and even dengue.

She added that in the epidemiology report for week No. 50 (last week), the positivity was at 16.5%, with 36 people hospitalized with some chronic diseases or not vaccinated this year.

The official highlighted that both dengue and COVID-19 present similar symptoms such as fever, headache, body discomfort, sore throat, and nausea; which is causing people not to come to check what type of virus is making them sick.