(QCOSTARICA) Costa Rica’s Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Salas, returning from a few days of much-needed rest, this Monday, June 8, was back at the podium in the daily press conferenced and said that “it is clear (…) we are in a second pandemic wave” of COVID-19, after the country overcame a first wave.
He assured that this second wave has been detected in specific places where the orange alert was decreed in a number of cantons and districts in the northern zone, but he called for all of us to continue collaborating to avoid community transmission.
“We have reached the largest number of cases we have had,” Salas.
On Monday, 24 new cases were added to the confirmed cases, bringing the total to 1,342 from the first case on March 6.
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A second wave means that the number of active cases rises that is, of people who still have the disease. This number grows when the number of new and active new cases is greater than that of recovered cases.
The number of active cases more than doubled in the past week, reaching a peak this Monday of 620.
Salas indicated that this second wave is hitting with particular force workers in the agricultural sector, packing sector, in the construction sector and others, so he called on employers to support health actions. “We all must carry it forward,” he said.
Dr. Román Macaya, president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), said that vulnerable populations are joining the list of infected people.
“There are people below the poverty line, in many cases in (illegal) immigration status, even informal workers who work in agriculture,” said Macaya.
From March 6 to June 8, Costa Rica had accumulated 1,342 cases of COVID-19, of which 712 recovered and 10 have died. .