Costa Rica is a small country that has made great strives against the spread of the new Coronavirus in its territory. Although we cannot still cry out the victory, it is necessary to recognize all the efforts and achievements obtained in this arduous battle, which has affected all of Humanity.
The Costa Rican Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, referring to this, commented: “The success has been real, but it is not a guarantee.” Likewise, he recognizes that without a vaccine against COVID-19 or that there is a population immunity of 60% or more, it will not be possible to speak of a ‘victory’ against this Pandemic, so the government continues with a timely search and control of the cases.
It is important to take into account that Costa Rica is one of the countries with the lowest mortality rate on the continent from COVID-19. In addition to having great control in sanitary matters, with the in-country creation of mechanical respirators that are already in their final phase of tests carried out, to be used on patients in a safe manner. It is worth mentioning that these machines are in great demand worldwide and Costa Rica is innovating with these made with national talent and materials, which will make them more affordable compared to those sold in the world market.
A strong health system
The Country has the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), it is based on a universal health system accessible to its citizens and is paid on a tripartite basis (State, Employer, and Employee), in addition to having more than 1,200 Basic Comprehensive Health Care Units (Ebais) in the Country.
A unified social security system that allows flexibility to be adapted to the responses, allows the distribution of the supplies and the COVID-19 detection tests. In addition, we have a public safety reference laboratory that supervises the entire laboratory system at the national level,” stated the Tico Minister of Health, Daniel Salas.
The Costa Rican population has also played a great role in this fight, thanks to its compliance with the voluntary quarantine for the Coronavirus, social distancing, and taking seriously all the sanitary measures issued by the World Health Organization released by the Costa Rican government. That is why Minister Salas said: “Having a vast majority of the population that follows the sanitary measures and protocols is key to positively facing this epidemic.”
Monitoring the behavior of the contagion curve
For the Health Minister, monitoring the contagion curve and keeping it flattened is one of the main objectives. He also commented, “We have different types of surveillance, one of them is through the COVID-19 surveillance guidelines that respond to the definition of cases. This is given by the World Health Organization (WHO) ”.
To conclude, it is evident for all that Costa Rica has positioned itself as the country in the region that has best faced this Pandemic. Compared to other countries on the continent such as the case of Brazil, which currently has more than half a million cases and almost 30,000 deaths, alarming figures for this Virus, and others in the region, where it is observed that its contagion rate is increasing exponentially.
