(QCOSTARICA) As Health authorities in Costa Rica have pointed, risk factors that are a deadly combination with COVID-19. Almost all the people who have died in the country (31 as of this Monday) from this virus had a “combo” of these diseases.
According to data from the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), the most common factor in both deaths and confirmed patients is hypertension. Of the 30 dead (to Sunday), 16 suffered from high blood pressure and 9 of diabetes, the others had other illnesses such as lung problems, smoking, obesity, or cancer, even sometimes combined.
This Sunday, the entity revealed new data on patients confirmed with the virus and these are the most common comorbidities:
- Hypertension (52).
- Diabetes (40).
- Obesity (27).
- Smoking (26).
- Asthma (19).
- Dyslipidemia (12).
- Cancer (9).
- Active smoking (4).
- Others (3).
In Costa Rica, 4 out of 10 people over the age of 20 have high blood pressure. The heart is the organ that suffers the most from this problem, since it is exposed to coronary heart disease and heart failure. Hypertension can also damage the kidneys, eyesight, and the brain, due to altered blood pressure levels.
Health authorities have insisted on the need to care for seniors and people with risk factors because they are more likely to die if infected with the coronavirus COVID-19.
On Sunday, 365 new confirmed cases were reported, for an accumulated total of 7,596 cases in 80 of the 82 cantons of the country.
Monday morning, the Ministry of Health reported death number 31 due to COVID-19.
This past week (July 6 to July 11), 11 deaths have been reported. The most recent, this Monday morning, a 43-year-old Costa Rican man, who died at the San Juan de Dios hospital, in the intensive care unit since July 8, the day same day he was confirmed with COVID-19. The deceased suffered from bronchial asthma and obesity.
On Sunday, the Ministry of Health reported a record number of hospitalized, 140, of which 27 (this morning 26) being treated in the Intensive Care Units (ICU), with an age range of 0 to 82 years.
In addition, two children confirmed positive for COVID-19 are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), in delicate condition, at the Children’s Hospital in San Jose.
