QCOSTARICA – On Monday, March 6, like any other Monday, but three years ago, news broke that would mark, in a way never seen before, the public health of Costa Rica.
The Ministry of Health reported the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the country.
1,095 days later, more than a million cases have been registered and 9,000 in Costa Rica have lost the battle against covid.
At the time, confinement was the main strategy of the authorities, now promoting vaccination is the main task of the Ministry of Health.
90% of the population already has one dose of the covid-19 vaccine, and an 83% two doses. However, 1.5 million still have their third dose pending.
Rodrigo Marín, Director of Health Surveillance, we can now see that Costa Rica did a good job in handling the pandemic and reinforced that vaccination is essential.
Precisely, as a way to encourage bivalent vaccination, this week the Ministry of Health started a campaign from the private sector.
Starting yesterday, people will be able to receive the bivalent vaccine against COVID-19 in private clinics and pharmacies, free of charge.
According to the information given by the Ministry of Health, in addition to this vaccine, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd doses will also be applied.
“By the end of March and the beginning of April, the country will have greater availability of vaccines, since it is expected that 180,000 bivalent vaccines and 72,000 pediatric vaccines for children between 5 and 11 years of age will enter. We reiterate the call to the population to come to get vaccinated and avoid getting seriously ill,” added Marín.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines include a component of the original virus strain to provide broad protection against COVID-19 and a component of the omicron variant to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant. These are called bivalent COVID-19 vaccines because they contain these two components. A bivalent COVID-19 vaccine may also be referred to as “updated” COVID-19 vaccine booster dose.
Those interested can find the places where the vaccination is being carried out follow the link: https://salud.co.cr/vacunacion-covid/
In the last week, 5,126 cases of Covid-19 were registered, 15 deaths, and a daily average of 207 are hospitalized, of which 17 are in the ICU.
