Authorities and specialized personnel of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) will detail today the COVID-19 preparations of the emergency services for the Christmas and New Year season.
The national coordinating team includes the medical manager of the CCSS -in charge of public health in Costa Rica-, Mario Ruiz; the clinical head of the Emergency Service of the National Children’s Hospital, and Adriana Yock; head of Emergencies at the Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia hospital. The executive president of the CCSS, Román Macaya, asked his compatriots not to loosen in the protection measures against COVID-19 and enjoy a safe Christmas season.
Macaya said that this December is very different from that of past years, because -for example- a year ago we did not have the threat of the Pandemic on our radar, but today SARS-CoV-2 is among us and we must take care of each other. “We must not lower our guard in terms of hand washing, the use of a mask, the distance of two meters and the proper way to cough or sneeze”, he said.
‘What we are seeing in hospitals is serious, beginning this week we have 555 people hospitalized with COVID-19, of these 335 are in medium care units and 220 in Intensive Care Units (ICU),” he said.
“Although the institution has 314 ICU beds, not all of them are for critical cases and this means that we are only eight patients away from reaching the current critical bed capacity and an additional eight in an eventual maximum expansion”, Macaya said.
Maximum safeguard
The patients who are arriving at hospitals have more complicated conditions, with very complex chronic diseases, and this is a real threat, he indicated and therefore insisted on the strengthening of the Safe Family and the extreme protection of people with risk factors such as diabetics, hypertensive, asthmatic, obese and heart disease.
After ensuring that the CCSS continues to fight to obtain personal protective equipment, vaccines and have the physical spaces and resources to attend to those who require the services of the institution, Macaya said that this is a shared responsibility.
For this reason, he insisted on the general public to not participate in massive events, nor organize activities such as birthdays, baby showers, or large family reunions that endanger the group, because – he stressed – it is up to each family of taking care, protecting each other.
When will they declare the stay at home order to keep thousands of people from descending on the beaches, crowding bars and restaurants? Please don’t overburden Guanacaste this year, stay home!
Very valid your opinion, thanks for sharing it.