The number of covid-19 reached 713 cases in Costa Rica this Wednesday, April 29, with the addition of eight new patients, over the 705 cases on Tuesday
According to data from the Ministry of Health, there are 340 women and 373 men, between 1 and 87 years old. Of these, 642 are Costa Rican and 71 foreigners.
Cases are detected in 60 of the 82 cantons in the seven provinces.
By age, there are 676 adults (38 of whom are seniors) and 37 minors.
As of this Wednesday, more than half of the infected have recovered, 323 in total, 156 women and 167 men.
Six people have died, all males aged 45 to 87 years.
A total of 16 people remain hospitalized, eight of them in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
The information was provided by Rodrigo Marín, director of Health Surveillance, of the Ministry of Health, during the mid-day press conference.
Marín explained that of the 713 cases registered to date, the 53rd day since the first case was detected, 16 (2.2%) were asymptomatic.
Marin reported that the capacity to carry out testing is increased, from 600 a day to 2,500. The objective, said Marin, is to reach up to 4,000 per day.
The Minister of Public Security, Michael Soto, absent from the daily briefings this past week, made a review of security measures, restrictions and results of border operations.
According to Soto, since the closure of borders or immigration restriction on March 18, to April 28, 22,405 have entered the country, all Costa Ricans or residents who were abroad and returned.
Of these, 15,190 entered by land, 7,177 by air, and 38 by sea.
Meanwhile, during the same period, there were 67,152 exits (people leaving the country), of which 45,405 were by air, 21,699 by land and 48 by sea.
In addition, there have been 8,540 rejections, almost all (8,529) people who tried to enter by land, nine were by air and two by sea. The majority of rejections, the minister said, corresponded mainly Nicaraguans who tried to enter through the northern posts of Peñas Blancas and Tablillas.
7,857 migratory sanitary orders have been issued, that is, people who must remain in quarantine or isolation for 14 days. Of that number, 6,195 were issued to Costa Ricans, 1,321 to residents and 341 to others.
The number of traffic tickets for violating vehicle restriction reached 13,047, that is, drivers who traveled in restricted hours or days.
Soto also specified that to date 226 people have been detentions were made for violating sanitary restrictions, not respecting the closure of businesses. Of those offenders, 193 are men and 33 women.
In addition, 9,524 stores have been ordered closed for failing to comply with sanitary measures.
As to vehicular restrictions, the Minister reminded that they are in place, nationwide, during the week from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm based on the last digit of the license plate and weekends evens restricted on Saturdays and odds on Sundays. The nighttime restrictions for all vehicles continue from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am.
Soto added that for the weekends, the vehicular restrictions are expanded to include other businesses in addition to supermarkets and pharmacies that will be allowed open starting this weekend, such as beauty salons, barbershops, swim schools and others.
The vehicular restrictions remain in force until May 15.
“As long as we respect the sanitary and distancing measures, and the indicators are maintained,” he warned.
Faced with complaints from drivers, Soto recalled that everyone is able to appeal a traffic ticket through a procedure in the Road Safety Council.
Scams. Again, Soto alerted to people or groups trying to scam others. He cited among these cases, that of individuals posing as officials of the Ministry of Finance to report tax exemption and ask to enter a link or website. With that scam, they access accounts.
Similarly, he said, “they are trying to scam you with offers of help to withdraw the Labor Capitalization Fund (FCL) or the bonos for the needy. The common denominator is to enter key password data to a link and here the data is subtracted from it.”
“We ask everyone to be vigilant, not to fall prey to scams,” the minister concluded the press conference.
