Panama secures $1.3 billion in funding, as coronavirus cases rise

Panama has obtained $1.3 billion in funding to help small companies and boost job creation, President Laurentino Cortizo said on Tuesday, as health officials registered 102 new cases of the coronavirus and one new death. The new cases took the country's total to 3,574, with 95 deaths.

Cortizo said Panama has secured $500 million from the International Monetary Fund and $500 million from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, a member of the World Bank Group. The Inter-American Development Bank will provide a $300 million loan, he added. Panama is one of Latin America's busiest transit points, contributing to a particularly high concentration of infections of the coronavirus.