April 17, 2020
Today really just felt a lot like yesterday, with a splash of “It’s Friday, but my body doesn’t even know it.” Fought the hard fight today on understanding why I still don’t have an answer to my salvoconducto request, (which was initially denied and then followed by my request for reconsideration after denial). Although I didn’t get a response to my reconsideration, I did get a decent amount of information on what’s going on thanks to MICI and several friends and colleagues. MICI informed me via their 504-4420 salvoconducto hotline, that they were seriously overwhelmed with calls, emails and even personal visits to their Plaza Edison office. The website is overloaded and the phones were ringing off the hook. (It took me 24 continuous, OCD attempts at getting through to them when I did finally decide to call.) The operator, who was obviously stressed but pleasant, did say that the April 21 deadline to get the salvoconductos updated was still in effect. My sigh of relief came when he admitted that the requests for reconsideration were being handled manually by a team of expert researchers who were going to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday until midnight if needed until all requests were properly answered.
Also, good friend John Brock who many in the Pedasi area know and tolerate… …oops, I meant LOVE, was also successful in getting his salvoconducto. Max Meta from MAM Security was able to get 100% of his personnel into the system yesterday on the first try; classic Israeli efficiency! In fact, many of my colleagues in security were also successful. I guess this is just a matter of patience and frequent visits to my happy place until we get a positive response.
ROWS AND ROWS OF WOMEN
As would be expected, the supermarkets in Panama were overflowing with an angry lot of women who were stuck with having to do the shopping and errands that their male companions would have done on Saturday. If you think the men were upset for having to stay home, you should have seen the semi-revolutionaries that took to the streets today.
What you didn’t see today was a single handwritten “shopping list” or the wandering, inquisitive eyes of a lost soul searching for bread flour in the potato chip aisle. No sir, today the ladies, in their stylish form, were direct and punctual as they gracefully swayed their way first to produce, smoothly on to canned goods and then finally scratching off the items of their mental list in the dairy section. It was poetry in motion. All the while, the men suffered at home as day 32 of quarantine plunged them deeper into their anxious impulses; oh, the horror:
TOP NEWS and TIDBITS:
Doctors for Panama program launched in the fight against COVID-19
Volunteer doctors from different specialties will be able to provide patient care through a virtual clinic, in support of the fight against the new coronavirus COVID-19. This is the Doctors for Panama program, which was launched on April 17 and seeks to recruit health professionals who can provide care from their homes. Dr. Daniel Pichel explained that those interested in joining this initiative must enter the page www.medicosporpanama.com and register. Subsequently, the information is sent to the Ministry of Health (Minsa) for verification of credentials. Then, the Health authorities will contact the doctor to explain how the virtual office works. The medical consultation service will be provided free of charge.
https://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/2020/04/17/lanzan-programa-medicos-panama-lucha/2783932.html
The Carlos Slim foundation offers free courses and tutorials for health professionals due to pandemic
In the framework of the COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Health, expressed as the convergence of scientific knowledge, technological development and artificial intelligence, has played an unprecedented role.
It is important that these advances translate into improvements in health care, both in ambulatory care and in hospital care. For this reason, at the Carlos Slim Foundation, we have carried out a review and selection of the existing offer, considering the prestige of academic institutions, the relevance and potential impact of the curriculum, and the ease of dissemination, among other factors.
https://saluddigital.com/cursos-de-capacitacion-para-tratamiento-de-covid-19/
With virtual classes, the University of Panama will exempt students from the payment of some services
The rector of the University of Panama Eduardo Flores announced that classes will continue virtually through COVID-19 and that in this first quarter students will not have to pay for some services. Tuition will be charged, but within it the services of: cafeteria, sports, student welfare, card, laboratories and professional practice, will not be charged, since the virtual classes will not be using them. Professor of Economics at the Rolando Gordón University, stated that for each student a total of five dollars is being exonerated. About 345 thousand dollars is being exonerated according to the professor and economist, considering the University of Panama services approximately 79,000 students. This is only for this semester, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be necessary to wait for the health authorities to decide when the quarantine will be lifted, to know what they’ll do for the second semester. This would also be a support for parents in this very difficult situation experienced by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, especially given the multiple complaints that have surfaced in recent days regarding this issue.
More than 2,300 people held this week for breaching quarantine
So far this week, the National Police (PN) units have detained 2,327 people for failing to comply with the total quarantine decreed in Panama for the pandemic of the new coronavirus COVID-19. Commissioner Alexis Muñoz, deputy director of the National Police (PN) said that the number of detainees has decreased a little compared to previous weeks. Muñoz explained that this week, an average of 500 to 550 people per day have been detained for failing to comply with the measure. In the last 24 hours, 553 people were arrested, including 488 men, 42 women and 23 minors.
https://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/2020/04/17/2-mil-300-personas-retenidas/2782752.html
Anxiety, insomnia and sadness overwhelm people in quarantine
The quarantine imposed as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic affects the mental health of some Panamanians and an example of this is that specialists in the field provide care for anxiety, insomnia, sadness and emotional irritability to an average of 20 people every hour, through of the 169 telephone line and the ROSA platform.
The mental health coordinator of the Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Health (Minsa), Delia De Ycaza, specified that since they began to attend to the psycho-emotional part of the population, they have received 4,500 calls. The services were given between April 6 and 14, a period of only 9 days.
According to the expert, these are not easy calls to answer, since the population shows a certain degree of despair and each call takes 15 minutes on average.
“What we have detected through these calls is that the Panamanian population, in general, is feeling fear,” he said, and affirmed that through this system they seek, precisely, to reassure people who for different reasons need help.
The team is made up of professionals with experience in psychological and psychiatric care, who provide guidance to those who say they feel fear, anxiety, anguish, nervousness, bad mood, insomnia, among other symptoms that affect mental health. The hours of operation are 7:00 a.m. at 10:00 p.m.
According to De Ycaza, it is normal for some reactions to skyrocket, such as those that have been said to occur between people due to quarantine and confinement. “We seek to avoid those consequences that can occur in the long and medium-term among the population, such as mood disorders or depression, which are more serious,” he said.
Regarding the emotional and social impact that isolation will leave, De Ycaza said that it will be very difficult to define a future scenario.
“Each person experiences crises in their life differently. However, if we generalize, we can say that in the future we will have many problems with anxiety disorders, depressants and post-traumatic stress, “he warned.
However, he stressed that we must focus on the present, because how we deal with the current situation will determine how we will live it in the future.
“There is an infinite range of alternatives, such as exercises, communication with friends and loved ones, that can help us to carry out the quarantine in a positive way. The other option would be to see the negative or find guilty, but that would not be good in the future, “he concluded.
Faced with the demand for psycho-emotional attention from the Panamanian population, the Minister of Health, Rosario Turner, reported this week that they enabled two more lines.
These are the telephone numbers 523-6846 and 523-6813, of the Institute of Mental Health, which will operate from 7:00 a.m. at 5:00 p.m.
Domestic violence is on the rise as well. The National Institute for Women (Inamu) has attended to around 200 domestic violence cases.
The information was confirmed by the entity that defends women’s human rights, which also reported that in the face of the latest acts of violence, they’re being more watchful of these cases.
There’s a hotline that the government has created and these acts of violence can be reported by calling 323-3281.
SINAPROC volunteer dies due to COVID-19
The National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) reported this Friday of the death of Don Bosco base volunteer, Francisco Perea after losing his battle against COVID-19.
According to Sinaproc, Perea was a capeless hero “he was characterized by his disposition and dedication in each of the missions of the organization at the service of the Homeland. He served the organization for seven years as an active member.”
Sinaproc mourns the death of Perea, who dedicated himself to volunteering and sharing his experiences with new generations. He reiterated his total support for the Perea family.
https://www.telemetro.com/nacionales/2020/04/17/fallece-sinaproc-covid-19/2783936.html
Bugaba Mayor’s office orders mandatory use of masks to circulate
The Mayor’s Office of Bugaba ordered the mandatory use of masks to mitigate COVID-19, through Decree # 014-2020 of April 16, 2020.
The document establishes that “all citizens who make use of their authorized hours to leave their residence or are in the exercise of their functions in both public and private institutions, must wear a mask”.
It also establishes that all commercial establishments must carry out regular disinfection in the facilities; which will be accredited by photographic evidence that shows the day and time of the cleaning, which may not be less than three times a month.
Those who fail to comply with these sanitary measures will be sanctioned:
The non-use of face masks will be fined the first time with B / .10.00, and re-incidence will be B / .20.00 .; while not disinfecting commercial establishments, the first time the fine will be B / .50.00, and re-incidence wil be B / .100.00, as well as a possible temporary order of closure.
The sanctions must be paid to the Bugaba Municipal Treasury within a maximum period of 24 hours after notification.
STATUS UPDATE:
PANAMA ENDS THE WEEK WITH A TOTAL OF 116 DEATHS AND 4,210 CASES OF CORONAVIRUS
- 4,210 positive cases
- 194 new cases
- 116 deaths
- 3,631 home isolation
- 843 are in hotels
- 341 are hospitalized
- 243 in room
- 94 in intensive care
- 122 recovered by laboratory
- 1931 clinically recovered
The “Clinically Recovered” stat of 1,931 people simply means that the patient no longer has the symptoms but still tests positive with the infection. They are clinically recovered, because they’re out of harm’s way but still can’t be cleared as “recovered by laboratory” until they test negative on two tests that the medical professionals give them. This also means that of all the people who have been detected with the virus, 46% have beat the infection and that’s a better statistic than anything else we have reported on.
Since the first case of coronavirus was reported in the country, a total of 18,559 COVID-19 tests have been performed in Panama, of which 14,131 have been negative.
ENDNOTES:
The more I write, the more I realize just how fortunate I’ve been to meet and to be associated with such good, decent, hardworking people. It’s times like these when we need to lift each other up and I hope that even in some small way, my dedication to them, helps to do just that.
- Kent Davis Kent and I keep running in to each other everywhere in Panama. Either by accident or fate, both of us have ambitious hearts. I first met Kent in his early days as he started sculpting his real estate business one brick at a time. A loving family man with one of the most genuine smiles, Kent is always looking to help his fellow expat however possible.
- Anel Hoquee – I met Anel many years ago as we worked Child Repatriation cases together. We’ve become so close that we’re practically family with relatives living just 2 blocks from each other in Pocri of Aguadulce. I do have several friends who are lawyer, that I would always recommend, but Anel is the one “mal amigo” as we affectionate call each other, that I can always count on.
- Mike Clancy – With his smooth southern drawl, he’ll easily pull you in for a great conversation and a chance for a brew or two. A humble man with a big heart, Mike owns one of the more successful business centers located in El Dorado; the whole center was crafted with his own bare hands.
Stay safe… Stay healthy… And by all means STAY HOME!!…
Brett Mikkelson, CII, CPE
Director, B.M. Investigations, Inc. | M1 Consultants Inc
Mobile (+507) 6674-1183
brett@bminvestigations.com / www.bminvestigations.com
Proud Member of: Council of International Investigators (President 2018-2019), World Association of Detectives (International Member), Victory Services Club (London), Examinadors de Fraude Autorizados (Panama), Alianza de Seguridad Empresarial (Panama)
