QCOSTARICA – The relaxed restrictions of the month and in combination with Semana Santa has resulted in an increase in cases, almost double that of last month, increased hospitalizations and more people actively carrying the virus.
The good news in all of this is a drastic drop in the contagion rate or rate, more vaccines arriving and the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) changing its rhythm to get more people vaccinated in less time.
Let’s start with the epidemiological report from the Ministry of Health.
The country added 907 new confirmed cases of covid-19 on Wednesday, April 7, 877 on Thursday, April 8, and 914 on Friday, April 9, for an accumulated total of 222,544 cases.
In total, they are 110,037 women and 112,507 men, of which 195,153 are Costa Rican and 27,391 are foreigners.
By age, they are 203,731 adults (of which 16,903 are seniors) and 18,706 minors. 107 are under investigation.
On Friday, 412 people were hospitalized, 199 of them in intensive care with an age range of 0 to 91 years.
Four deaths associated with Covid-19 were reported on Wednesday, April 7, seven on Thursday, April 8, and seven on Friday, April 9, for a total of 3,018 deaths: 1,131 women and 1,887 men, with an age range of two to 103 years. By age, there are 3,014 adults (of which 2,095 are seniors) and four minors.
Contagion or “R” rate
The contagion or “r” rate reported by the Universidad Hispanoamericana (UH) this Friday, April 9, was 0.83, the lowest in the last 8 weeks. Experts warn of possible ‘delusion’.
This value indicates how many people, on average, a carrier of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes covid-19, would infect and is very volatile, changing drastically from week to week.
Ronald Evans, the coordinator of the report, points out that this can be misleading, since fewer records could be presented during Semana Santa, since people, being on holidays, could have gone less to health centers.
“This really unexpected change should not give rise to unfounded illusions. Rather, it could be a mirage and it would not be surprising to see an increase in cases this week that was the consequence of the ‘crazy life’ taken by some during the holidays,” said the doctor and epidemiologist.
Vaccination
Vaccination of people over 58 years of age rises from 19% to 27% in two weeks as the immunization advances of those at highest risk and seniors continues, but the disparity between health areas remains.
In eight establishments the CCSS has already vaccinated more than half of this age group, but in another 23 less than 20% have been injected.
As of April 6, three out of every ten people in that 58 and over age group had already received at least one injection of the Pfizer vaccine, in one of the 105 health areas of the CCSS.
13 days ago, as of March 24, only two out of every of that group had been inoculated.
In total, the CCSS reports applying 504,930 doses, of which 291,368 are first dose and 213,562 are second dose, according to official data posted on the Caja website.
