The Costa Rican authorities reported this past Tuesday that they have put more than a million doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 into Costa Rican arms and affirmed that the process has accelerated with the arrival of larger batches from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
The weekly report of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) indicates that, as of May 10th, 1,093,931 doses were administerd against COVID-19, thus reaching a national application rate of 21.19 per 100 people.
Pfizer’s vaccine
Communication Minister Agustín Castro said that a batch of 124,020 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine will arrive in the country this week. It is, along with the one from the previous week, the largest shipment made by the pharmaceutical company so far and that, according to Castro said, favors the acceleration of the vaccination process.
AstraZeneca and Covax
Costa Rica expects AstraZeneca deliveries to begin in May and 88,800 doses of the Covax mechanism are expected to arrive this week, which would be the second shipment to arrive in this way, after one of 43,200 doses that entered last April.
Costa Rica has a contract with Pfizer for 6 million doses, one with AstraZeneca for 1 million doses and another agreement with the Covax mechanism, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), for 2 million doses.
More than one million
The CCSS data indicate that so far, in this country of 5 million inhabitants, 1,093,931 doses have been placed and that 436,630 people already have the two that complete the scheme. The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, highlighted on his social networks that 142,980 doses were placed the previous week, the highest weekly figure since vaccination began on December 24th.
Vaccination rates
All first responders in the country have already received at least one dose and in the group of people over 100 years of age the vaccination rate is 99.7 per 100 inhabitants and 93.7 in the group of people between 90 and 99 years . In the group of people between 80 and 89 years old, the vaccination rate is 92.6 per 100 people and in the group between 70 and 79 years old the indicator is 86.8 per 100 people.
Currently, vaccination is focused on people over 58 years old and in some areas of the country they have already started vaccinating people between 18 and 57 years old who have risk factors.
A new infection wave
Since the second half of April, Costa Rica has been going through a new wave of infections that has saturated the country’s hospitals, especially the intensive care units. The Government ordered this week a reduction of capacity in shops, churches and other places, as well as some restrictions on the circulation of vehicles, measures applauded by the business chambers, but criticized by the medical unions that demanded a stronger closure of economic activities to lower the contagion curve.
Between May 3 and 9, Costa Rica counted 15,157 cases of COVID-19, the highest weekly number so far in the Pandemic, exceeding the 14,784 of the previous week. As of Monday, Costa Rica had a total of 271,478 cases and 3,430 deaths.
