(QCOSTARICA) The Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Salas, is in self- isolation at home until Sunday, September 6, after his father tested positive for COVID-19.
The information was confirmed by the Ministry of Health, during the Tuesday afternoon press conference.
Salas’s father was admitted to hospital on August 14 due to coronary disease. On Monday, Augst 24, it was confirmed that the senior Salas has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The press office of the Ministry of Health indicated that the contagion of the minister’s father could have been intrahospital.
Meanwhile, the Minister will remain isolated in a room in his house, without having contact with his wife and daughter, until September 6. Meanwhile, he will be teleworking and be at his office in person on Monday, September 7.
He is expected to be at work on Monday, September 7Salas would return to work in person on Monday, September 7, although he will work virtually as of August 26, his press office reported.
At this time, the Minister has no symptoms and as such will not, based on health guidelines, be tested to detect the coronavirus.
Possible in-hospital infection
Jorge Eduardo Salas Rodríguez, the minister’s father, 68 years old, was admitted to the Hospital México on August 14 due to a heart condition, with no connection to COVID-19.
Salas Rodríguez is still hospitalized in stable condition, reported the press office of the Ministry of Health.
Initially, Minister Salas was to have returned to work on Monday, August 14, but the new situation forced a change of plans. In his place, the Vice Minister of Health, Pedro González is the acting minister.
In an interview with La Nación’s Revista Dominical on August 12, Salas expressed his daily concern about the effects of this pandemic in Costa Rica.
‘If you the pandemic touches you, are you ready? At that moment one is scared, but you face it if it comes. But saying that one is reading for something like this is 100% impossible,” the minister said at the time.
Salas has never hidden his regret over the deaths due to CVOID, which to today, August 25, total 376.
“If the population is neglectful and relaxes, the number of deaths will be much higher and that is very painful. To see families suffering, coworkers who no longer have each other because the virus took them away. It’s very sad,” Salas said on August 12.
