Compared to other Latin American countries, Panama has done an amazing job of fighting Covid-19. They are doing more testing per capita than any other country in Central or South America.
It’s true that Panama has had some severe lockdown and prevention measures but that has helped keep the number of deaths low and prevented hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. From the beginning, their objective has been to identify those who test positive (even with no symptoms) so they could isolate those people to prevent them from infecting others. When someone does test positive, Panama has an aggressive contact tracing plan to notify everyone they came in to contact with so they can isolate too.
Currently, the only restrictions are that everyone must wear a mask in public and in stores. There is a curfew from 11 pm to 5 am. Some businesses are still closed but most are open. Restaurants offer dine-in service with less capacity.
For several months, the number of new cases per day was down to 500-600 per day. Then the November holidays started and the number of new cases jumped to 1000 new cases per day. I think this is because of the many parties during the holidays. Panamanians love their parties and family gatherings.. despite Covid. Panama recently issued new guidelines that family gatherings or parties cannot be more than 10 people. The highest number of cases are in Panama City and just west of Panama City. These are both areas with a very high density.
I really think the numbers will start going BACK DOWN by the end of November because no one in Panama wants to go back to having restrictions as indicated in the Contingency Plan below.
CONTINGENCY PLAN
The Contingency Plan is divided into four indicators, seven pillars, and five alert stages.