QCOSTARICA – Covid-19 keeps public hospitals saturated. In the latest Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) report, as of Friday, May 21 at noon, there were 522 people in Intensive Care Units (ICU), of which 184 were in critical condition.
Of the 522 people in Intensive Care, 23% are in Hospital México, 18% in Calderón Guardia, 15% in Ceaco and the rest are distributed in other public hospitals in the country.
31% of the patients in ICU are between 50 and 59 years old; the age group most affected; Patients between 40 and 49 years old represent 24% of those who are in ICU; and those between the ages of 60 and 69 represent 23%.
Three minors were hospitalized in Intensive Care at the Hospital Nacional de Niños (Chidlren’s Hospital) in San Jose.
To alleviate the crisis, the institution had to stretch the maximum capacity of Intensive Care Units, from 359 beds to more than 500, in recent days. Not an easy feat given the limited resources of the Caja, facing a situation it has never had to in its 80 years of existence.
In total, public medical centers have 1,427 hospitalized for covid-19.
Another 126 are hospitalized on suspicion of having contracted the virus.
For its part, the Ministry of Health reported Friday 2,587 new cases and 29 deaths associated with covid-19.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases is now 2219,219 and 3,576 deaths.