The risk of contracting COVID-19 in Costa Rica is much higher today, four months after the first case of the disease in the country, warned the president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), Román Macaya.
“People who leave their house should not be thinking that the risk is less, no, the risk today is much greater than when our message to stay home first went out,” Macaya stressed. “Leaving home should be done responsibly,” he added.
The CCSS President explained that the increase of cases in the country in the last three weeks is the result of a mixture of factors: gradual economic opening (“you cannot keep people quarantined until there is a vaccine, nobody can take that”), the entry of imported cases, and transmission (of the Virus) in dense communities with a lower socioeconomic profile (“with houses that do not allow effective and real isolation”).
Precisely, the Health authorities foresee for the following weeks a saturation of medical centers, because there has been an accelerated increase in hospitalization of COVID patients.
Adding to this situation, 77 prison inmates have now tested positive, 52 of them are in CEACO. Given this situation, special isolated spaces are being enlisted in CCSS hospitals to attend these patients.
“We have to take care of each other and collectively try to flatten the contagion curve. The risk is greater today, it is a very complex situation because the health aspect must be balanced and the light at the end of the tunnel can be achieved with greater discipline,” concluded the CCSS President.
