(QCOSTARICA) Costa Rica, which in March, April and May became one of the Latin American champions in combating the coronavirus with Uruguay and Paraguay, began to give way rapidly in June in a deterioration that worsened in July and predicted implacable sanitary turbulence for the next three months, August, September, and October.
The crisis in Costa Rica was exacerbated by the irregular migration of cheap Nicaraguan labor, the flexibilization of human mobility, and partying.
The president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), Román Macaya, warned that, being a border with Nicaragua, in the north, and with Panama, in the south, Costa Rica is between two countries with “an intensity” of cases “much higher” than the national one.
“Especially from Nicaragua we are receiving a lot of migrants that have been positive,” he added.
Nicaragua, which refused to adopt a quarantine, this week reported, officially (July 9), 91 deaths and 2,846 patients, but Nicaraguan independent medical sources assured that there are more than 7,000 positive cases and with more than 2,000 deaths.
Panama, which imposed rigorous rules, as of July 9, registered 839 deaths in 42, 216 infected.
Costa Rica rose from 55 new cases on June 7, to 119 on the 19th, and to 190 on the 30th, to start on July 1 with 294; July 55 with 375, and July 9th with 649 new cases, and 25 deaths since March.
“This is not a game. It is real life, it is not a simulation,” insists Costa Rica’s Minister of Health, Daniel Salas.
The country went from a few cases daily to an impending medical services collapse due to the growing demand.
Supported by one of the strongest state structures of social security and health in Latin America, which began to build almost 80 years ago and consolidated in 1948 by abolishing the army, Costa Rica took three months (March 6 to June 6) to reach 1,263 cases, this week it did that in 3 days.
Costa Rica and Paraguay were, along with Uruguay, among the least affected by the emergency in Latin America until the beginning of June.
Uruguay went from 847 infections and 12 deaths on June 13 to 977infections and 29 deaths on July 9, to confirm themselves as the Latin American nation with the highest resistance to the virus.
Paraguay added 1,261 cases, with 11 deceased on June 13 and on the 24th of that month it grew to 1,242 and 13 deaths, but its situation changed due to an outbreak in prisons and on July 9 reported 2,638 cases and 20 deaths.
A study by the (state) University of Costa Rica (UCR) released this week stated that Costa Rica is the second country with the highest rate of infections in Latin America, with 1.97 per infected.
