QCOSTARICA – Every three hours four people die from covid-19 related in Costa Rica, as hospitalizations and deaths rose in the last week, according to data released Tuesday afternoon by the Ministry of Health for the period of September 19 to 25 (epidemiological week number 38).
In the week, there were 223 deaths related to covid-19, that is, four deaths every three hours, which implies an increase of 5.6% from week to week.
“There is enormous pressure on the health system and hospital morgues with this number of deaths per day,” summarized Dr. Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, during Tuesday’s live press conference from Casa Presidencial.
Currently, the average number of daily deaths is 32.
59.6% of the deaths in these last seven days were in the age group 65 years and over, 25.1% in the age group 50 to 64 years, 14.8% from 18 to 49 years and 0.4% in minors.
As of September 28, the country has accumulated 6,316 accumulated deaths related to covid-19, of which 39 were in the 24 hours between Monday and Tuesday noon press conference.
In hospitals
While many press on the government for complete opening of the economy that includes ending the vehicular restrictions, closing of businesses at 9:00 pm and other sanitary measures, there increase in infections and hospitalizations continues.
During epidemiological week 38, the average number of hospitalized patients was 1,340, while the average for the week prior was 1,323, a 1.3% increase in hospitalizations.
Likewise, the number of people entering a medical center rose, going from 851 to 906, an increase of 6.5%, from one week to another.
According to Salas, there is an impact and the speed of these increases has decreased, but the emergency situation has not been removed.
This Tuesday 1,359 people were hospitalized (34 of which were in private centers). Of the total hospitalized, 449 are in an intensive care unit (ICU).
“We have a wave that has been very widespread, mortality also increased and hospitalizations growing. It is not the intensity of increase that we were seeing but, there is still an increase. We see some signs that a slowdown is beginning, but it does not mean that we are already at ease at all,” Salas said.
“The hospital occupation has been surpassed. We are over 120% of occupancy. In addition, there are patients who predominantly require intensive care, most of whom are unvaccinated. We are also seeing a slowdown in the influx of people to vaccinations for the first dose,” he added.
Cases on the rise
Reported cases are also on the rise. It went from 15,182 cases in week 37 to 15,941 in week 38. This represents an increase of 4.9% from one week to another, with an average of 2,277 cases per day. For this Tuesday 2,078 new cases are registered.
For Dr. Salas, the increase in the daily cases, currently an average of 2,277 daily, is due to the delta variant, which is more transmissible.
According to the genomic analysis of the virus, 80% of the samples analyzed correspond to delta, explained the Minister.
