(QCOSTARICA) It was good to see Health Minister, Dr. Daniel Salas, back at the helm, after being absent for more than week.
The Minister reported that the country registered 935 new cases of COVID-19 for Sunday, September 27, and 730 cases for Monday, September 28, reaching a total of 73,714 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
This is the first time in more than a week for two consecutive days of less than 1,000 new cases
The number of recovered rose to 29,420 or almost 40% of cases, a number that has been slowly increasing. This trend is expected to continue as the Ministry of Health continues in its efforts to catch on follow ups.
On Monday, 617 people are hospitalized, 228 of them in intensive care with an age range of 1 to 91 years.
There were 19 deaths reported for Sunday and 14 for Monday, reaching a total of 861 deaths related to COVID-19: 336 women and 525 men, with an age range of 19 to 100 years.
Health issues guidelines authorizing the CCSS for the use of antigen tests for the diagnosis of COVID-19
The Ministry of Health issued the guidelines for antigen detection tests for the identification of COVID-19. The use of these tests will initially only be allowed to the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) since they will be used for public health reasons to increase the capacity and response of laboratories at local levels, taking into account that antigen tests are faster. and less expensive than currently used PCRs.
The test will only be performed on people with symptoms. To perform the nasopharyngeal swab test, the person must be between days 1 and 5 of the date of onset of symptoms.
The beauty of antigen testing is that it is fast and gives quick results. It will allow healthcare workers to quickly isolate cases and treat them while tracing their contacts to cut the transmission chain.
Antigen tests detect the presence of viral proteins through an immunocapture format. Viral antigens can be detected when the virus is actively replicating, making this type of assay very specific.
