While celebrations were all-around at the Hospital San Rafael in Alajuela, for the discharge from hospital of one their own, later in the day, in the Hospital San Juan de Dios, Costa Rica’s death number 3 from the covid-19 was recorded.
At the Alajuela hospital, one of the most affected by the coronavirus, the young woman identified as Magaly had suffered complications but bounced back.
“Her case became complicated from the pulmonary point of view, required intubation and a tracheotomy to be able to breathe … today she is going home, she is going to have to be in recovery for a few days,” explained Health Minister Daniel Salas.
Two hours after the mid-day briefing on the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health reported the death of a 45-year-old man, in the intensive care unit of the Hospital San Juan de Dios.
The man, who had no risk factors, acquired the virus on a trip to the United States. He was hospitalized for 10 days in the Intensive Care Unit of that medical center. No other detials were provided.
Minutes following the announcement, President Carlos Alvarado, posted on Twitter: “Costa Rica records the third death from COVID-19, a 45-year-old man with no risk factors. We regret this death and we show solidarity with his family. No one is exempt from becoming seriously ill or losing their lives. Please, let’s stay home.”
Costa Rica registra la tercera muerte por COVID-19, un hombre de 45 años sin factores de riesgo. Lamentamos este fallecimiento y nos solidarizamos con su familia. Nadie está exento de enfermar gravemente o perder la vida. Por favor, quedémonos en casa.
— Carlos Alvarado Quesada (@CarlosAlvQ) April 8, 2020
The briefing
Minister Salas reported that Costa Rica has recorded 502 confirmed cases of the covid-19, 19 more than the day before; the number of recovered climbed 29 and the number of deaths remained at 2. However, that is now updated to 3.
Of the confirmed cases, 243 are women and 259 men, ranging from the ages of 1 to 87.
The active number of cases is now 470, of which 22 are hospitalized and 14 in intensive care. These numbers are updated from the graphic to reflect the afternoon death.
Minister Salas expressed concern of actions of Costa Ricans this week, many are still not taking the pandemic seriously, not heeding to the stay-at-home request.
He insisted that the way in which cases behave is constantly analyzed.
“There is no way to predict what will happen after Semana Santa or if the trend is going to decrease, we know that the measures we have taken are because there was a lot of risk due to the history of the population at Easter. We are doing this analysis every day, there is still a percentage that has not been exposed to the virus, if we neglect the measures there will always be that explosion of cases and the saturation of services, it is a scenario where we are constantly analyzing,” said Salas.
Violations to the health order and vehicular restrictions
Security Minister Micheal Soto reported 135 people have been sanctioned for violating the health order the traffic police are issuing an average of 600 traffic tickets daily for violation of the vehicular restrictions.
The minister noted that today and through Sunday, the daytime restrictions have intensified, today, Wednesday, only plates 0 & 1 can circulate, Thursday 2 & 3, Friday 4 & 5, Saturday 6 & and Sunday 8 & 9. And only for local grocery shopping and pharmacy.
The nighttime restrictions continue applying to all vehicles.
