QCOSTARICA – In the genomic surveillance process of SARS-CoV-2, the Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud (Inciensa) – Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health – confirmed Tuesday, July 20, the first 16 cases of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Costa Rica.
Twelve Costa Ricans and four foreigners, of which 11 are women aged between 16 and 64 years and five men aged between 21 and 34 years, tested positive for the variant.
Patients were identified between epidemiological weeks 24 (June 13-19) and 27 (July 4-10).
Seven of the people have recovered, while nine are still in the process of recovering from the virus. None have required hospitalization, nor have they died.
Fever, cough, and headache are the leading symptoms:
- Fever 22.92%
- Cough 20.83%
- Headache 16.67%
- Odynophagia 10.42%
- Myalgia 8.33%
- Arthralgia 6.25%
- Nasal congestion 4.17%
- Weakness 2.08%
- Chills 2.08%
- Vomiting 2.08%
- Respiratory Difficulty 2.08%
- Anosmia 2.08%
Of the 16 positives for Delta, three patients were vaccinated: two with Pfizer and one with Johnson and Johnson. Those vaccinated with Pfizer were more than 14 days after immunization, while the person vaccinated with Johnson and Johnson was 10 days after their immunization.
The report indicated that in three cases the persons had traveled outside the country: Nicaragua, Mexico and the United States. One of the infected is a tourist from Germany.
“At this time, it is key for the prevention and control of covid-19 to continue applying the measures recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health, which we are all familiar with, but which are essential to contain the transmission of the disease: hand washing, adequate and frequent; the use of a mask, social distancing and the cough and sneeze protocol.
“Now more than all the previous months, it is extremely necessary to apply the above, given the high transmissibility that characterizes the Delta variant,” underlined Dr. Francisco Duarte, microbiologist, and coordinator of the Genómica del Inciensa laboratory.
