QCOSTARICA – Dr. Mario Urcuyo, an expert in the Situation Room of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), pointed out that the situation in national hospitals is already critical and warned that the worst of the pandemic would come in the next 3 weeks.
The specialist said that there is an increase “never before seen” in hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients.
In addition, hospital rooms “are full of patients with other pathologies.” Likewise, medical staff are very fatigued and it has repercussions on a physical and emotional level.
“The situation is critical. We have reached more than a thousand people hospitalized … It is very possible that there are more deaths. The worst is not over. We are heading into the worst of the pandemic. The next 3 weeks are critical,” commented Urcuyo.
The official commented that there are currently 491 people in ICU beds and the projection for the next few weeks is that this number will increase.
“It confronts us with the worst scenario that we have experienced in our hospital system. We estimate that there will be 3,100 cases per day. We are all exhausted … but the virus does not tire, so we have to resume the measures already known,” he added.
The doctor also pointed out that since Sunday there are already hospitalizations in private hospitals, confirming the Caja’s transfer of 34 people to these centers.
“They are patients of low complexity and who have a hospitalization time that can be expected,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, reported an average of 27 deaths per day related to Covid-19 in the past week and the daily average of cases is now 2,500.
If you will recall it wasn’t that long ago that the average number of daily deaths was under 20 and cases under 2,000.
