(QCOSTARICA) If you’re concerned about the number of new Covid-19 cases reported in the past few weeks, in particular these last several days, you may want to look better at the hospitalization rate to calm down.
It is normal for the number of infected people to grow as sanitary measures are relaxed, as long as there is no increase in patients who need medical attention, because there is a risk that the health system will collapse.
Until now the behavior of the Covid-19 has been positive, due to the low number of people hospitalized and deaths that have been registered, according to Juan José Romero, an epidemiologist from the Master’s in Epidemiology at the Universidad Nacional (UNA).
But precisely to avoid that the situation gets out of control it is recommended to follow the sanitary protocols to the letter.
For now, the largest number of infections is focused on the northern area of the country, where attention is focused to avoid falling into community infections, which is the most critical phase of the pandemic.
For this, some communities in that area were raised to an orange alert that implies restrictions on navigation, vehicular and commercial circulation, to contain the population.
Singapore is a case that shows that the severity is in serious patients and deaths and not in the number of infections.
As of June 12, that country registered 39,850 positive cases, of which 27,286 people have recovered and only 25 deaths.
“Singapore shows that it is not the number of patients, but the number of hospitalizations and deaths that makes the difference,” Romero compared.
In Costa Rica, the majority of the infected with COVID-19 recover at home. Less than 10% require hospitalization and those admitted to the Intensive Care Unit do not exceed 3%.
“The relative drop in hospitalization is due to the daily follow-up by a family doctor to all the positives recovering at home, to the fact that daily calls are made to them and doubts are clarified, as symptoms are followed up,” explained Román Macaya, executive president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), who added that when a patient requires a transfer to the medical center, it is done.
Health authorities are aware that the flexibility of sanitary measures was going to impact COVID-19 cases, hence the opening of trade and movement restrictions are being gradually carried out.
On Thursday, June 11, the country reached 1,538 positive cases of COVID-19, but the critical elements to consider remained stable:
- Hospitalized patients: 20
- Patients in Intensive Care (ICU): 3
- Deaths: 12
Low capacity
The country has little capacity for specialized spaces to attend serious cases of COVID-19. In total there are 212 beds in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), and generally, 80% of those beds are occupied.
National (Caja) hospitals with ICU beds
- Mexico: 56
- San Juan de Dios: 50
- Calderón Guardia: 28
- Nacional de Niños (Children’s Hospital): 27
- Saint Vincent de Paul de Heredia: 8
- San Rafael de Alajuela: 6
- Max Peralta, Cartago: 6
- Monsignor Sanabria, Puntarenas: 6
- Enrique Baltodano, Liberia: 6
- Hospital de La Anexión, Nicoya: 6
- Tony Facio, Limón: 5
- San Carlos: 4
- Escalante Pradilla, Pérez Zeledón: 4
