QCOSTARICA – According to the latest report on the pandemic from the Universidad Hispanoamericana (UH), in the last week, COVID-19 cases increased by 15.9%.
The average number of new daily cases is now 1,638, which represents an increase of 225 more patients (15.9%) that cause pressure on the Costa Rican health system.
As a result of this increase in cases, the incidence rate went from 237.7 to 317.3 cases per 1,000,000 inhabitants. Alajuela is the province with the highest rate, at 425.8.
Ronald Evans, the epidemiologist in charge of the report, assured that the severity of the wave can be better evaluated by the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and those in Intensive Care Units, as well as by the number of deaths from the disease.
On Thursday, August 19, the Ministry of Health reported the single largest number of daily cases to date, 2,311 and a marked increase in hospitalizations with 1,022 patients, of which 420 are in Intensive Care.
On Thursday, there were 12 deaths associated with covid-19, bringing the total now to 5.296.
“In the first case, there is a small increase between the week before and the last, 5%. A different case is that of mortality, since between the weeks before and after there was a decrease equivalent to 5.3%. This last trend may be the result of the beginning of the effect of the relatively high percentage of the population vaccinated with at least one dose (57.11%), since we know that vaccines protect especially against the most serious forms of the disease, and therefore of the possibility of dying,” he said.
During the period from August 8 to 14, the basic rate of reproduction of SARS CoV 2 decreased from 1.13 to 1.08. Despite the slight decrease at the national level, the reality is different in some provinces: Limón ranged from 1.11 to 1.16 its basic reproduction rate, ranking first, followed by Guanacaste with 1.12 and Heredia with 1.11. San José and Alajuela is 1.08.
Roberto Salvatierra, a medical researcher at the UH, revealed that “from the first week of July it is noted that the lethality falls below 1, although with 3 small specific peaks, with subsequent decreases”.
In this regard, Evans explained that “this particularity of lethality may be the incipient work of the protective action of the vaccination campaign, which reduces the severity of those infected. We will have to wait longer and greater immunization coverage to determine if this trend in fatality continues”.
