QCOSTARICA – The Ministry of Health reported Saturday night that the critical beds for patients with covid-19 have reached capacity.
Likewise, it indicated that, in general, all intensive care unit (ICU) beds available for the care of patients with covid-19 have high occupancy.
“The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) intensively monitors the number of ICU beds available for the care of covid-19 patients, which at this time has a high occupancy.
“This Saturday afternoon, the Emergency and Disaster Attention Center, the COV19 Transfer Center and the Medical Management of the CCSS held an emergency meeting to analyze the hospital capacity of covid-19 beds,” Health reported.
The institution’s medical manager, Mario Ruiz, stated that they are making all possible coordination efforts in national, regional, and peripheral hospitals to determine where new patients can be placed.
Ruiz again reiterated the call to the population to take care of themselves by maintaining the measures of use of masks, hand washing, physical distancing, and avoiding crowds.
According to the Ministry of Health, in the last three weeks, a large number of people conglomerated in public places have been observed not complying with the recommended sanitary measures, which is a breeding ground for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“We have said it and we say it again. In the event that the trend of increasing demand for hospitalization services due to covid-19 continues, we will be exceeding our bed capacity and we will face the painful situation that other countries have experienced.
“The CCSS has done its part. It is up to people to be responsible for taking care of their health and that of others,” Ruiz emphasized.
The medical manager reiterated that the battle against covid-19 is not won in hospitals but in homes and streets with the responsible behavior of everyone.
For his part, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, joined the call before the capacity occupancy of ICU beds for critical patients.
“About a third of covid-19 patients who enter intensive care will experience kidney failure and, therefore, will require a critical care bed. This threshold that we are reaching today places us at risk of not being able to give them the support that these patients require.
“We need to react. The health system is not infinite and we are reaching a highly dangerous situation,” Salas said.
