66% of the population of Panama has received a dose of the anticovid vaccine

File photograph taken on July 22 in which a general shot of a vaccination center against covid-19 was recorded, in the Albrook Mall shopping center, in Panama City (Panama). EFE / Welcome Velasco

Panama City, Sep 20 (EFE) .- 66% of the population of Panama has received the first dose of the vaccine against covid-19, which places the country as the fifth in Latin America with the highest percentage of people inoculated against the disease, said the Ministry of Health (Minsa) on Monday.
Citing data from the online publication Our World in Data, the Minsa detailed that Panama, a country of 4.28 million inhabitants, is located behind Uruguay (first), Chile, Brazil and Cuba in this list.
Since last January 20 and until this Monday in Panama, 5,350,317 doses of the vaccine against covid-19 have been administered: 4,605,843 portions of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and 744,474 of AstraZeneca, according to the report of the Expanded Program of Immunization (PAI).
The Central American country has already vaccinated 50% of the target people with the two doses, highlighted last week the head of the Minsa, Luis Francisco Sucre, who said that this represents “a great advance in the PanavaC-19 operation, with a view to achieve community immunity by the end of the year 2021 “.
With the advance of the vaccination process and the decrease in cases, as well as a decrease in deaths and patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU), measures to control the pandemic such as night curfew have been made more flexible or eliminated in various parts of the country and the capacity allowed in churches, parishes, places of worship, chapels and temples.
As of this Monday, these congregations will allow a capacity of 80% of people with the complete vaccination schedule, and 50% of the general population, according to the country’s health authorities.
Panama added this Monday 152 new cases of covid-19, the lowest record in recent weeks, and 4 deaths from the disease, to reach 464,440 confirmed infections and 7,176 deaths in more than 18 months of the pandemic.
According to the Minsa report, there are 68 patients hospitalized for the coronavirus in the ICU and 225 in the ward, while 3,501 are isolated at home and 164 in hotels, for 3,958 active cases.
On this day, 3,536 tests were applied to detect covid cases, with positivity of 4.2%. The tests per million inhabitants amount to 889,678.