QCOSTARICA – The true impact of the December holidays and social gatherings will be seen in January and the expected results are negative, according to Dr. Roberto Aguilar Tassara, director of the National Rehabilitation Center (Cenare), which became the Patient Care Center. with Covid-19 (Ceaco) since SARS-CoV-2 arrived in Costa Rica.
Dr. Aguilar assures that the country will very possibly experience its highest peak of infections and hospitalizations due to the new coronavirus in January.
“It’s amazing to see the streets full (of people), the stores full (of people), the Ruta 27 collapsed (with holiday traffic) … people forgot that there is a pandemic. People took vacations from the pandemic and those vacations from the pandemic are probably going to take us to one of the darkest January in history, unfortunately,” he said.
The doctor affirmed that the population still has time to avoid major get-togethers at the end of the year, and even recalled that the best way to wish a happy new year is by keeping distance and thus avoiding a greater spread of the virus between people who, even if they are asymptomatic, they can infect others (including those with risk factors for becoming seriously ill).
“People must understand the responsibility they have towards themselves and towards other people. The arrival of the vaccine is a blessing and a great step towards ending this, but we are in the worst part at the moment, we are not even close to being good. This is the time when we have to take care of ourselves the most.
“I know we are at a time when we are all pulling the plug and we are fed up with all of this, but it is the last push and it is the most important because it is the one that makes all the sacrifice that was made worthwhile. We must not loosen and fall at the last moment when everything that was suffered in 2020 has already been suffered.
“This year the act that one can do to wish another person a happy year is not to hug them, not kiss them, and keep ourselves at a distance and with a mask,” he said.
Paying the bill
The situation is especially critical according to Dr. Aguilar because the behavior of the population has obviously been out of control at this time of the year. For this reason, he affirms that the country “will pay the bill” in January.
“I don’t know if we are at the highest peak, but we are heading for it. We are at the top, but in January we are going to pay the bill for the end of the year parties and the problem is that those to pay it are the most vulnerable people.
“That’s the saddest thing of all, many of those vulnerable people are those people we love and I think that one would never deliberately do that to parents or grandparents, but that’s exactly what we have to think about, to take care of ourselves. not just for ourselves but for them, because that’s the most important thing.
“Everyone has been partying for about two weeks now. Now everyone hugs each other and says ‘happy new year’, but we are also passing the virus; thus the (new) year is not going to be better. We have to do our part so that the next year will be better and we can say that we have come out of this so that it is not just a wish but a fact,” he concluded.
Despite the arrival of the first vaccines to the country last Wednesday, December 23) and new batch arrived this Wednesday, December 30, with the Ministry of Health announcing weekly from now on, Costa Rica is far from containing the pandemic (as is the rest of the world).
The immunization process is just beginning and will not be final until the greatest number of people are protected, the virus reproduction rate remains at a high point and the occupation of specialized beds in Intensive Care Units are at levels above 60% for patients in severe condition and 90% for critical patients.
Since the first case of the virus was registered in the country on March 6, Costa Rica already has more than 168,114 people infected with the virus and 2,171 deaths (as of December 30).
