how to delete a panel and a window with python curses

Question

the documentation does not really mention how to delete a window or a panel;

the c api of curses has delwin and del_panel functions, but neither is available in the python api; does this mean the correct way of deleting a window in python is to simply unlink all references to it and let it be garbage collected? does the same apply to a panel?

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the only place i found del_panel is called in the python curses.panel module is in the deallocator:

static void
PyCursesPanel_Dealloc(PyCursesPanelObject *po)
{
    PyObject *obj = (PyObject *) panel_userptr(po->pan);
    if (obj) {
        (void)set_panel_userptr(po->pan, NULL);
        Py_DECREF(obj);
    }
    (void)del_panel(po->pan);
    if (po->wo != NULL) {
        Py_DECREF(po->wo);
        remove_lop(po);
    }
    PyObject_DEL(po);
}