The government of Costa Rica will reveal today the new measures to try to contain the exponential growth of COVID-19, after the alarming record number of 649 cases in one day, when the previous level was 375.
In the press conference at the Presidential House, the Health Minister Daniel Salas indicated this past Thursday that this number of confirmed cases for one day was projected, in compliance with measures, between July 20th and 21st, and without compliance between July 13th and July 14th, which shows an exponential acceleration. “This situation merits the advancement of closure and quarantine measures that will be analyzed at a meeting of leaders this evening and duly communicated to the public,” said Salas.
For his part, President Carlos Alvarado, present at the press conference, announced that the priority today is the Pandemic and called on the population to comply strictly with the sanitary measures and protocols to minimize the current impact of COVID-19.
Regarding exponential growth, the executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), Román Macaya, reported that since March 6th, when they detected the first positive cases, 83 days have passed in reporting the first thousand cases, 21 days for two thousand cases, 9 days for three thousand, five days for four thousand and three for five thousand cases.
Due to the excessive growth of cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) decreed this Thursday that Costa Rica is in phase four, the phase of COVID-19 community transmission and contagion.
The WHO’s maximum alert for the Pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus for all of Costa Rica, contrasts with the Government’s decision of the past two days that only recognizes the existence of community transmission in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM ), and unable to determine the contacts of 60 percent of the new positives.
To face hospitalizations and people who will need intensive care derived from the alarming growth of those infected, Macaya announced an expansion of the units in hospitals in the institutional network to serve COVID-19 patients.
The executive president of the CCSS (in charge of public health in Costa Rica), also commented that they will prepare the East Tower of the recently completed Calderón Guardia Hospital, to use it as a center for COVID-19 patients.
However, Macaya warned that no hospital expansion will be sufficient to respond to the Pandemic if citizens do not assume their responsibility to comply with public health recommendations, to achieve a decrease in the rate of increase of daily cases.
The report of this past Thursday for COVID-19 reflects that Costa Rica accumulates 6,485 positive cases, there are 120 people hospitalized, 14 of them in intensive care; and 25 deceased, including 10 women and 15 men.
