A new report on COVID-19 in Costa Rica prepared by the Research Unit of the School of Medicine at the Universidad Hispanoamericana, indicates that the Basic Reproduction Index (Rt) of the virus presented from November 22 to 28, a drop of 1.07 to 1.0.
The analysis is carried out by Dr. Ronald Evans, Dr. Roberto Salvatierra and the statistician Roger Bonilla, and as they commented, in this study the displacement of the Pandemic towards the coastal areas and the decrease in the metropolitan area is more noticeable.
“The most notable decrease was obtained by the province of San José, followed by that of Cartago. Changes in the percentages for Alajuela and Heredia were negligible. In the case of the increase in rates, the most significant was that of the province of Guanacaste”, explained Dr. Evans.
Precisely, in the case rates per million inhabitants, they are located in the first three places: Guanacaste (248.8), Limón (245.5) and Puntarenas (232.6). The virus moves to areas with susceptible populations. As for the cantons, the report indicates that Zarcero, San Pablo, Alajuelita, Siquirres and Turrialba entered the red category.
The case of Turrialba stands out, which went from being in the low risk group to the high risk group. It currently has a very high rate: 257.9 per million and a Rt reproduction rate of 1.71. “The virus is moving to areas where there is a large susceptible population, since previous weeks this area had practically passed undamaged by the Coronavirus infection,” explained Dr. Evans.
Country has a rate of 26,811 cases per million inhabitants
The analysis of the Universidad Hispanoamericana assures that Costa Rica has a rate of 26,811 cases per million inhabitants; that of Colombia is 25,601 and that of Panama 27,933. “Note that in the cases per million inhabitants we are in fifth place out of 18 Latin American countries analyzed, above Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Mexico, which have been inclemently hit by SARS CoV-2 and others,” emphasized Dr. Evans.
Regarding the number of diagnostic tests carried out per million inhabitants, Costa Rica carried out 74,607 tests, four times less than Chile, three times less than Panama and half of those carried out by Peru.
