Alejandrina Guzman, the daughter of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has distributed boxes with groceries to elderly and impoverished people who lack food during the coronavirus pandemic while her father sits behind bars in the United States. Media in Mexico have labeled the donations “Chapo food parcels.”
Guzman owns the El Chapo 701 fashion brand, registered in the state of Jalisco, which specializes in narco-themed apparel. Online media platforms have broadcast footage of her filling cardboard boxes bearing the El Chapo 701 logo with toilet paper and rice for distribution to people in need. Her helpers then swarm to deliver the donations.
El Chapo’s daughter isn’t the first cartel figure to engage in such altruism in Mexico. In recent days, numerous gangs have made the news by distributing care parcels to impoverished people. Authorities have been largely powerless to stop them. Parcels were handed out in the city of San Luis Potosi by the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, and Mayor Xavier Nava had no legal means to stop the unarmed civilians from doing it.
“Mexico faces an acute humanitarian crisis and shortage of goods,” Falko Ernst, an analyst with the Crisis Group whop focuses on Mexico, told DW. “Mexican cartels are using this situation to strengthen their social base,” he said. And food parcels are an effective means for achieving this. Ernst said cartels had limited resources at the moment, and so are avoiding violent confrontation with others.
Charity (strings attached)
In March, 2, 585 people were murdered in Mexico — making it the bloodiest month in the nearly decade-and-a-half drug war. Jose Reveles, a journalist who specializes in reporting on the narco trade, called the aid a cartel “propaganda strategy, aimed to show their presence.” He said violence and benevolence both serve the same purpose for cartels: to exert their influence on the territories they seek to control as they face competition from the government, as well as rival criminal organizations.
The cartels are capitalizing on the fact that Mexico’s social welfare programs are inefficient, don’t cover everyone and are politicized. Ernst calls the lack of a safety net “deeply worrying” and said the government ” will soon have even bigger security problems on its hands” should it fail to intervene and provide services for people in need.
Mauricio Merino, a professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics, would like to see President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador institute a universal basic income for that would cover 68 million of Mexico’s 126 million people for the next six months. Merino said the president, affectionately called AMLO by his supporters, should abandon projects such as building a refinery in Tabasco with the stated goal of reducing Mexico’s dependence on foreign oil and a train route that would link archaeological sites, with spots popular with tourists and economic centers across the southeast. Obrador, however, rarely brings up Mexico’s security situation in his daily press briefings.
Coronavirus hits cartels
The coronavirus pandemic has taken a toll on organized crime groups. Many drug trafficking routes have been severed. Cocaine from South America is hard time come by, as are the chemicals, usually imported from China, needed to produce synthetic drugs. The economic standstill and border closures have also caused a drop in protection racketeering and human trafficking. Now, some cartels can no longer afford to pay their hitmen.
Reveles said Mexico’s major cartels might possess enough resources to hang on for several months, however, and possibly take over small groups, as well. He said now would be the time to “to tackle money laundering and try to cut off the big players’ money supply.” Reveles said he did not believe that the government had gone after cartels with particular determination.
The journalist does not foresee a return to the conditions of two decades ago when a relatively small number of capos controlled the drug trade in Mexico. Reveles said Mexico’s crime networks had grown too fragmented for that to happen. But he does see the risk of small, criminal subgroups becoming involved in kidnappings, street crime and gasoline smuggling. That could mean even more violence in Mexico in the medium term.
Our lives have been disrupted and impacted in unprecedented ways by the measures put in place to address the current pandemic.
Moments of social disruption are a valuable reminder that so much of what we take for granted — our sense of normalcy — isn’t necessarily normal at all.
The breakdown of the ordinary forces us to confront the ideas and expectations that lie at the basis of our understanding of the world in the first place.
So much of our thinking about how the world actually works is conditioned by what we have experienced and what we are able to anticipate based on that experience. Our ability to understand a government’s response to a pandemic — what the government should or cannot do — is affected by our collective sense of what is acceptable.
My research draws on post-apocalyptic literature such as Jeff Vandermeer’s novel Annihilation and N. K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth triology to explore how disaster and end-of-world narratives can be used to legitimate and restore power or, conversely, disrupt it.
Such monumental and disruptive efforts are all being undertaken to counteract the tightening grip of a novel coronavirus, an entity not even visible to the naked eye. These extraordinary measures are evidence of our collective ability to reconstruct a new sense of normal, rearranging our lives to fit a shifting landscape of novel and emerging priorities.
And yet these actions also reveal how changeable the operations of the “normal” world can become in the face of new pressures.
On March 18, 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a fiscal plan worth three per cent of Canada’s economy in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Billions of dollars have been allocated for relief programs to support some of society’s most vulnerable populations, including Indigenous communities, the financially vulnerable, those fleeing violence or in need of mental health support.
Between the probable and possible
Like taking apart a mechanical device to see how it is made and view its component parts, the breakdown of the normal world reveals aspects of our reality and its social constitution not visible in everyday life.
The COVID-19 pandemic reveals what philosopher Isabelle Stengers describes as the hidden gap between the probable and the possible. The probable represents a history of thought that simply appears as common sense. Under the logic of a capitalistic paradigm, for example, it is not probable that governments would allow for the sudden suspension of student loan debt or the creation of a basic income subsidy for millions. But that does not mean such extraordinary measures are not possible.
In many ways, our shared sense of what is normal and probable lies is conditioned by both capitalism and our social histories. But these expectations, according to Stengers, prevent other possibilities, other realities from appearing, or from appearing sensible.
Putting the world back together
Yet important questions remain when the world breaks down, like: how should it be put back together?
Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine catalogues the way power operates in times of chaos, in order to capitalize on social harm and distraction to generate profit.
In ‘The Shock Doctrine,’ journalist and social activist Naomi Klein looks at the way capitalism functions in response to disaster. (Penguin Random House)
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby, recently submitted a 13-page memo to Ottawa, requesting the federal government rollback environmental regulations and defer critical environmental monitoring for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.
Energy industry CEOs also requested relief from Canada’s carbon and income taxes.
Canada has already begun rolling out multibillion dollar-bailout packages to prop up the oil industry, which represents some of the wealthiest natural resource corporations in the world.
That executives are seizing upon the pandemic as an opportunity to advance corporate interests and lobby for the rollback of environmental regulations is an important reminder that moments of disruption can be seized upon to serve the status quo and society’s greatest powers.
Stengers helps us understand why the opportunistic behaviours of these multinational corporations seems completely normal. Appeals to help businesses, to stabilize the economy, to create jobs all seem a matter of due course in unstable times. A multibillion-dollar bailout for industry is floated as simply a matter of common sense.
It is, we’re told, what’s best for us.
But who and what is actually represented in that ‘us?’
The ‘best’ decisions
Marginalized communities and ecological systems share a common bond in that they represent interests and needs often not reflected in executive decision-making, in the arguments of lobbyists and the fine print of economic stimulus packages.
In these times, more than ever, it becomes an urgent imperative that world-building and decision-making “take place somehow in the presence of those who will bear their consequences,” as philosopher Donna Haraway puts it.
The advent of COVID-19 is a particular disruption, but one that points out to so many other disruptions at work in our lives: global inequality, the climate emergency, rampant species extinction and resource depletion.
By exposing the fragility of the normal world, the pandemic also offers us an opportunity to make lives less precarious and social institutions more robust and thinking more free to consider not the probable world — but the possibility of building the worlds we hope to come.
This article ny Carol Linnitt, PhD Candidate, English, University of Victoria, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Rico’s Covid-19 Digest – The World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, declared COVID-19 pandemic. On March 6, Costa Rica reported its first confirmed case, a New Yorker visiting the country. As did many countries around the world, Costa Rica declared a state of emergency and implemented strict public health measures.
As of Sunday, April 26, 51 days after, the total infected reached 695. For almost two weeks, the number of new cases has been in single digits. The country counts this Monday morning with only 425 cases, as recoveries far outnumber new infections.
For the most part, Costa Rican have adapted to the “new normal”, such as driving restrictions countrywide, instead of only San Jose, and no driving at night. After almost weeks on end of social distancing, closed stores, malls, and beaches, tiredness is setting in.
Unemployment or reduced work, complete sectors like tourism hard hit and the economy is suffering. So, it’s no surprise many asking, or at least thinking, the same question: when will it all end?
There is no easy answer to this question. Projections and expert opinions, all point to one simple reality: we don’t know.
There are good signs that the actions taken by the Ministry of Health, the daily preaching by Dr. Daniel Salas of washing our hands, staying at home, going out only if necessary and more are working. Although there are new cases daily, it is a much slower rate than a few weeks ago.
The concern of overwhelming medical resources, such as hospitals and intensive care units did not occur.
Costa Rica did not like our neighbor to the south (Panama) and neighbors to the north (El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala), next to the immediate (Nicaragua), lock down the country.
Yes, we have restrictions on driving, the airports, sea and land borders did not close completely, only prohibiting the entry of foreigners (though they can leave).
Although it’s too early to tell if we’ve reached the peak of the first epidemic wave, it may be time to loosen up a little bit, not too much, too soon, to start moving towards a new normal.
For this, both President Carlos Alvarado and the Health Minister advanced that today, Monday, April 27, there will be changes, an easing of the restrictions, but not a removal as many have come to think.
This is an evolving situation.
I don’t have a crystal ball or inside information, just common sense that the measures will move from primarily health-focused, as has been the case so far, to a more economic one. I cannot think that the changes to be announced today will be overly drastic or will take effect immediately.
I don’t see stadiums filled with soccer or concert fans any time soon. I don’t see the night time vehicular restrictions being lifted, perhaps starting a little later, 10 pm like before Semana Santa.
Data on deaths and infections is incomplete in Ecuador, as it is across the region. As of April 22, Ecuador – a country of 17 million people – had reported almost 11,000 cases, which on a per capita basis would put it behind only Panama in Latin America. But the true number is likely much higher.
The government of Guayas Province, where Guayaquil is located, says 6,700 residents died in the first half of April, as compared to 1,000 in a normal year. A New York Times analysis estimates Ecuador’s real coronavirus death toll may be 15 times the 503 deaths officially tallied by April 15.
In a pandemic that has largely hit wealthy countries first, Ecuador is one of the first developing countries to face such a dire outbreak.
Our own academic research on Ecuadorean politics
and human security in past pandemics suggests that coronavirus may create greater political and economic turmoil in a country that already struggles with instability.
Ecuador’s swift response
The coronavirus outbreak in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city and economic engine, began in February, apparently with infected people returning from Spain.
Ecuadorians may not leave their homes at all between the hours of 2 p.m. and 5 a.m. Outside of curfew, they may only go out to get food, for essential work or for health-related reasons, wearing masks and gloves. Public transport is canceled.
This is the second time in a year Quito residents have found themselves under lockdown. In October 2019, a nighttime curfew was established quell massive protests against austerity measures that were imposed in exchange for a large loan from the International Monetary Fund.
The protests, led by indigenous groups, dissipated after President Lenín Moreno backed away from austerity – but not before at least eight people were killed.
Latin America’s looming epidemic
Ecuador has been more proactive in responding to the epidemic than many neighboring countries.
Most Latin American leaders who have taken decisive action against coronavirus see stay-at-home orders as the only way to avoid collapse of their fragile, underfunded health systems.
El Salvador’s president sent soldiers to enforce a 48-hour full lockdown of the city of La Libertad that prohibited residents from leaving home for any reason – including to get food or medicine.
In Ecuador, where the average annual income is US$11,000, the Moreno government is giving emergency grants of $60 to families whose monthly income is less than $400. It has opened shelters to get homeless people off the streets and commandeered hotels to isolate the infected.
An active network of community organizations is also working to provide basic food and shelter to the needy, which includes most of the quarter million Venezuelan refugees who entered Ecuador in recent years.
Despite its active coronavirus response, Ecuador is unlikely to cope well if the epidemic spreads quickly from Guayaquil into the rest of the country.
On April 7 Ecuador’s highest court sentenced the popular but divisive leftist former President Rafael Correa to eight years in prison on corruption charges. Correa, who now lives in Belgium, says the charges are fabricated to ensure he cannot run for office again. His conviction increases political divisions during a crisis that calls for unity.
Ecuador’s death rate is starting to slow after more than a month of lockdown. But the specter of COVID-19 victims lying unburied at home, in hospital hallways, and on the streets, hangs as a specter across Latin America.
Guayaquil is a grim forecast of how this pandemic kills in the less wealthy world.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro puts on a mask during a March news conference about the coronavirus pandemic.
(AP Photo/Andre Borges)
The COVID-19 coronavirus has infected more than two million people and killed more than 150,000 in almost 200 countries — figures that will be outdated by the time you read this article. Different countries have responded to the crisis by imposing national strategies that include the shutdown of non-essential places, home confinement and physical distancing.
We now know that many countries were late in imposing social distancing measures, often because the leaders of those countries failed to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem. China and the United States have been criticized for their lax response. Brazil should also be lumped into the same category.
Official figures from the Brazilian health ministry have shown a relatively small number of deaths from COVID-19 — about 2,000 people killed by the disease in a country with a population of more than 200 million. But researchers have shown Brazil is under-reporting COVID-19 infections and deaths, and that the country likely has 12 times more coronavirus cases than the official numbers.
Like the leaders of China and the United States did in the early stages of the outbreak, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the risks of the coronavirus. In late March, he argued: “Life must go on, employments should be kept, people’s income should be preserved, so all Brazilians should go back to normal.” The elderly were the most susceptible to infection, he said, so “why should schools be closed?”
Health minister was fired
Bolsonaro has opposed his own Ministry of Health’s policies regarding social isolation — so much so that he fired Minister of Health Luiz Henrique Mandetta on April 16. The final straw came after Mandetta criticized Bolsonaro when the president visited a hospital near Brasilia, but then went outside, walked among a crowd without his mask, shook hands and signed autographs.
A graffiti of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro wearing a protective mask in Rio de Janeiro. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Bolsonaro, 65, said if he were infected, he would not feel anything, or he would feel symptoms similar to “a little flu.” He has played up the fact that people under the age 40 are less likely to die from COVID-19, telling Brailizians that 90 per cent of “us” would not have any symptoms even if “we” were infected.
Brazilians should be careful not to spread the virus to “our” parents and grandparents, he conceded. If some people die, such as his mother, who is more than 90 years old, then he would say: “I’m sorry … that’s life.”
The main reason why Bolsonaro thinks the elderly and people with high-risk conditions can be sacrificed for the sake of the economy is that Brazil cannot afford an increase in unemployment, poverty and hunger.
Being suddenly concerned about Brazilians’ poor and unemployed is something new for the neoliberal populist president. He has been more concerned about the conservatives who support his government — including conservative Catholics and evangelicals. Bolsonaro has promised to increase Brazil’s GDP, but has also backed policies favoured by his conservatives base, such as opposing gender recognition and the legalization of abortion.
Why are some considered disposable?
If we follow Bolsonaro’s rationale, some groups should be considered disposable, particularly the very old and unhealthy people with high-risk conditions. But this eugenic view is absurd: emerging data from affected countries show that healthy young and middle-aged people are not spared by COVID-19, and many end up in intensive care. While Bolsonaro strongly opposes abortion, old people’s deaths from COVID-19 seem to be quite acceptable.
Bolsonaro dines with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in March 2020. It was later learned that Trump was exposed to COVID-19 during this meeting because an official in Bolsonaro’s entourage had the disease. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Bolsonaro has been guided by Trump’s anti-China theories about the coronavirus, presented in Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago, where the two presidents met in March. Relations between China and Brazil have been strained — especially after one of Bolsonaro’s cabinet ministers said in a tweet the coronavirus pandemic was part of Beijing’s “plan for world domination.”
Bolsonaro’s contrarian views about the pandemic have been questioned by Brazil’s governors and municipal leaders, as well as physicians and other experts. The vast majority of Brazilians have been following the World Health Organization’s recommendations of physical distancing — even criminal organizations in favelas.
A coalition against Bolsonaro has been coming together, made up of ministers, governors, judges, senior civil servants, experts, journalists and citizens. This show of solidarity indicates most Brazilians are willing to pay a heavy socio-economic price for the protection of people’s lives.
But when this moment ends, what will Brazilians do? More than 55 per cent of voters backed him in 2018, but his popularity was dropping even before the coronavirus outbreak. Will they approve of Bolsonaro’s example of trying to conduct “business as usual” during the pandemic for the sake of the economy, or will a new movement emerge that tries to address the country’s abject inequality? The crisis facing Brazil may be the perfect time to rethink and rebuild the country.
This article by Bruno Dupeyron, Professor, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina and Catarina Segatto, Visiting Professor, Universidade Federal do ABC, is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
India is a very vast and fascinating place. Its unique character leaves a powerful impression on the visitors and tourists that have the opportunity to experience it up close.
With all the things you need to inform yourself about (customs, manners, taboos, tips and many more) before planning a trip, you would think that this place is quite different from yours. That, however, is not the case. Especially in the online domain, India is on par with any other leaders, like the US, the UK, Japan, or South Korea. T
his is true for free-time passions in online like iGaming. Virtual casinos, where you can place bets on slots, fantasy sports, live casino games and many more, are legal and popular in India.
And that is great news for casino lovers and people who are curious about it. The abundance of online gambling platforms has only increased in the last 5 to 10 years. And with a great tool, anyone can see and choose a site to their liking, guaranteed to be safely licensed and providing great offers to your favor.
In case you want to start your journey safely, explore this page and try out an user-friendly website that explains the steps you need to take and how to pick out a good bonus. Want to become a high roller in your favorite casino? Try out using small steps and small, responsible bets, to secure your place among the elite.
The reasons why people choose to gamble online are plenty. The most popular ones are related to comfort and efficiency because all the gambling, talking, betting and cashing out is happening either on your computer or your phone. This means that you can be the poker or slots champion in your kitchen, on your porch or on your commute.
You’re in control of your surroundings and your bets, while Lady Luck is in charge of the games’ outcomes. And the fact that you can be home and still enjoy this atmosphere is simply great. You never know when great casinos may temporarily suspend their activity.
The Internet is the place where you can find anything you want regarding gambling. If we think and talk fantasy, the undeniable advantage is that the sky is not even the limit, the sky is just the starting point in terms of imagination. A player can construct a perfectly competent team and see it shine for different competitions, nothing like the real-life events. When real competitions are tainted by physical injuries, weather events, the fight of egos and many more problems, fantasy matches have nothing to do with such events.
It’s such a beloved way of creative time-spending that every place has its own favorite sport. Thus, US citizens love to create NFL idea teams, while according to the data from last year, Indian players love to play cricket the most out of all other options.
Indian statistics are not only in favor of fantasy sports, but in general with online gaming that involves wagering money. Thus, the numbers are very optimistic towards this somehow new trend, and its future looks bright and stable. Most of the usual players are in their early 20s, which means that the bay of users will keep rolling with this passion until their late adulthood, one can safely assume.
And because this group is young and in expansion, it creates a potent economic bubble out of which supply and demand create more jobs. It is estimated that around 40,000 people will end up working in the online gaming industry, starting now and up to two years into the future.
Life is moving more in more in our laptops and phones, and even if some certain groups and individuals oppose this and openly criticize it, it is only a natural response to the times and technologies that we have at hand. People just want to make their lives easier and they will continue to do it until the next best thing comes up. For now, online gambling and its other subsidiary gaming forms are blooming and keeping huge numbers of players entertained all around the globe, including India.
With the growth of the global online gambling industry seemingly unstoppable, more and more of us are looking to enjoy online casinos and all of the fun they offer.
Yet some nations continue to regulate gaming for both businesses and customers. One such nation is Costa Rica, where the online gambling situation is complicated to say the least.
Indeed, similarly to Costa Rica, Germany has long been hostile to online gambling yet the nation now has plans in place to become regulated. Luckily, review sites like NeueCasinos.de are in place to provide lists of newly regulated casinos.
In this article, we will take a look at the current online gambling situation in Costa Rica in 2020 and what this means for both businesses and customers.
Current legal stance
Although in Costa Rica it is not allowed for citizens to gamble online or on any games that have a random outcome, this law is surprisingly easy to get around.
This is because, due to Costa Rican law, the actual location of an online gambling businesses server isn’t the same at which gambling happens. As a result, it’s fine for companies to provide online gambling services from within Costa Rica providing they don’t provide them to citizens.
Licensing
Due to the fact that casino licensing in Costa Rica is not actually legislated by any formal body, this element of establishing a business in the country is fairly simple.
A data processing license is easily obtainable as long as you have offices in the country and, because of the popularity of Costa Rica with online gambling companies, the nation has now introduced an online gambling license.
The main downside to Costa Rica’s relaxed approach to online gambling operators is that many nations outlaw casinos operating from this nation. One such example is the UK, which doesn’t allow Costa Rican companies to serve its people.
Land-based casino gaming
Casinos are legal in Costa Rica and the nation has a small amount of offering scattered throughout its lands. All in all, there are about forty casinos in the country, with the capital of San Jose home to eighteen. The favourite game of people in Costa Rica is blackjack or 21, with slots also extremely popular.
Online casino firms within CR
Costa Rica is home to some seriously popular casinos, including 7 Spins Casino, 7Reels Casino and Thebes Casino. These are quality sites using top software providers such as Microgaming. Although not open to all players due to legal reasons and regulation in some nations like the UK, those lucky enough to have access to these Costa Rica casinos are guaranteed to enjoy a fair, secure game with amazing games on offer!
Overall, the current online gambling situation in Costa Rica in 2020 is a complex one that nonetheless presents one with many opportunities. Whilst it is not permitted for citizens of Costa Rica to gamble online, there are many online casinos using the Central American nation as a base for operations.
medical techonlogy concept,smart doctor hand working with modern laptop computer in modern office with virtual icon diagram
A CCSS app(lication) already installed on at least 1.2 million cell phones in Costa Rica could become an instrument to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
It’s called Expediente Digital Único en Salud (EDUS) – Unique Digital Health Record, it has been operating since 2015, but in the midst of the pandemic it has been shown that it could be used to locate (and treat) those who have come into contact with people infected with covid-19.
Do not panic. First, the system would be voluntary. Second, totally anonymous. And Third, it has not been approved yet, but the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) is seriously evaluating the legal feasibility.
The CCSS, if it were to roll out the program, guarantees EDUS would be totally anonymous.
EDUS typically serves as a liaison between CCSS-patient for medical appointments, diagnoses, medications, pension data, and now also to report if a user suffers from virus symptoms.
The plan would be that during the health emergency, the “app” asks the infected to get authorization for the location of their phone and the proximity to other people with cell phones.
The authorization would allow the CCSS to determine through Bluetooth with which other people the infected person had contact, at a certain physical distance, in the 14 days prior to the confirmation of the infection.
Thus, health authorities could identify and locate people at risk to determine if they have symptoms and if they require sampling.
For example, two people activate EDUS on their cellphones. They use their cellphone normally. Then one of them tests positive for the coronavirus. With the patient’s permission, the system sends an alert to the people who were in contact with him or her.
Dr. Eduardo Rodríguez, head of the EDUS clinical component, explained that the CCSS would not only send messages to those who interacted with the infected person, but also to those within a certain range around them, without specifying who the patient is or where they live.
“It would always be anonymized, without identifying the (infected) person. Obviously, it is not to mark the exact point, but to say ‘you must take extreme measures because in X range there is a positive case,’ ” the official explained.
To apply this method, the CCSS is analyzing the legal possibility of updating its “app” to add the function of allowing georeferencing.
Accessing the data from cellphones would allow health authorities to make precise epidemiological scans, as well as alert those who are close to or have had contact with an infected person.
Roberto Sasso, president of the Technological Research Club (Club de Investigación Tecnológica) and who promotes the “precision quarantine” (cuarentena de precisión) system, adds that those who were in contact with the infected person could be isolated and the procedure repeated with those that test positive.
Apple and Google also developed a contact tracking system that will make it possible, in mid-May, that as soon as a person is diagnosed with covid-19, alerts are sent to those who are within nine meters or less from said patient. It is also a volunteer application.
“Each user will have to explicitly choose whether to activate the technology. It can also be deactivated at any time by the user,” the two companies wrote in a joint statement.
Advantage of Edus
The advantage in the case of EDUS, which is the most downloaded health “app” in Costa Rica, is that almost 1.2 million cellphones have it installed and that the patient receives the guarantee from the CCSS that their private life will be respected – security and location will not be used.
This is not new. Other countries, such as Singapore, Israel, South Korea and Poland applied it in this emergency to contain the number of infected.
Tracing the virus path
According to Eduardo Rodríguez, until now EDUS has been useful to follow up on those infected with covid-19, as well as to receive reports from those who have suspicious symptoms.
However, the institution can still get more out of the tool.
“We have to make some adjustments that are minimal, in that the functionality is already in production and could be applied in a very, very short time. When I speak of very short, it is days,” said Rodríguez.
The CCSS, to roll out the app, is in consultations with its Legal Directorate and with the Data Protection Agency of the Inhabitants (Prodhab), to verify the legal possibility of implementing the strategy and define the rules to follow.
According to Sasso, international experiences indicate that, for a strategy of this type to be fully exploited, it is required that between 60% and 70% of the population use the technology.
A caveat
While the CCSS aims to make participation voluntary, Sasso believes that Legislators could pass emergency measures that force the system to be used for the benefit of public health.
He said that the use of their cellphones could be cut off if the person does not use the app, for example.
According to the head of the clinical component of the EDUS, until they have definitive legal criteria, the CCSS assumes the use of the app and its location feature is voluntary, that is the user could decide to activate the app or not. Even after activating, the user could turn off the app.
Access to data with informed consent
Depending on the legal opinion, Rodríguez explained that signing consent for location and tracking is one way to make use of the app.
According to lawyer José Francisco Salas, a specialist in computer law, although health records are sensitive and geolocation is restricted information, the law allows the State to access both.
“When it comes to an emergency like the one we have now, which is a health emergency, it can be done perfectly as long as there are clear rules for that. First, what is the purpose of data collection? And, very importantly, that purpose cannot be diverted,” said Salas.
The lawyer added that the fundamental thing is that there is informed consent from the owner of the data on how the information will be used, that the data is for the exclusive use of the health authorities and that the patient’s identity is shielded from third parties.
Several legislators have shared their opinion on the EDUS publicly. One of those is Wagner Jiménez, chairman of the Science and Technology Legislative Commission, who stated that if the Caja’s plan required any legal reform, he would support it.
“International experience confirms that technology is an instrument par excellence at the service of countries to face the Covid-19 storm,” said Jiménez.
Enrique Sánchez, legislator of the Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC and chairman of the Human Rights Commission, considers that the exceptional situation could justify the measure, under strict controls.
For Sanchez, privacy and data protection principles must be applied, the data must be anonymized, that the information is strictly necessary and that there is no scope to use it elsewhere.
“Also that access to data is exclusive for those who need it to deal with the crisis, it would have to be stored in an independent database so that it can disappear the day after (after the emergency ends),” Sanchez said.
Since March 26, the EDUS mobile application allows those who experience suspicious symptoms of covid-19 to report them to the Caja.
According to Rodríguez, until this Wednesday morning, 143,768 reports had been generated, of which 11,012 corresponded to people at high risk of contracting the disease.
Another 33,599 identified a medium risk that the symptoms experienced corresponded to the new disease, while 73,415 found a low probability. The rest correspond to people who did not report symptoms.
Rodríguez explained that the “app” also allows them to identify people who may have been infected, but who have few or no symptoms.
As we wait patiently for what is expected to be an easing of the restrictions, that could be less staying at home, more stores and businesses open and for longer hours, here is a great video of former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who shares stories from his nearly 30 days in space to help those currently sheltering-in-place due to the new coronavirus.
I am sure you will know Massimino for his appearances as himself in a recurring role on the CBS TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
Mike goes over a few of the things that helped him the most while he was isolated from friends and family, including regular exercise, talking with others, embracing the current situation and more.
Check out Mike Massimino’s new children’s book Spaceman: The True Story of a Young Boy’s Journey to Becoming an Astronaut at https://bit.ly/3aGOXVq
Astronaut Michael Massimino, STS-109 mission specialist, peers into Columbia’s crew cabin during a brief break in work on the Hubble Space Telescope, latched down just a few feet behind him in Columbia’s cargo bay, during his second extravehicular activity of STS109 on March 5, 2002.(NASA)
The lesson learned from a long history of using vaccines to fight massively disruptive diseases like smallpox and Ebola is that the vaccine itself is not enough. Like a good punch line, it’s all about the delivery.
The smallpox vaccine was an average one with a limited supply. But small, dedicated teams implemented a winning strategy for it. They focused on rapidly identifying individuals with smallpox and then vaccinating people in their circle or “ring” of potential contacts, creating a cordon of immunity that kept the disease out. The same strategy was recently employed with impressive results in the fight against Ebola.
Official names have been announced for the virus responsible for COVID-19 (previously known as “2019 novel coronavirus”) and the disease it causes.
The official names are:
Disease: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
Virus: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2)
Why do the virus and the disease have different names?
Viruses, and the diseases they cause, often have different names. For example, HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. People often know the name of a disease, but not the name of the virus that causes it.
There are different processes, and purposes, for naming viruses and diseases.
Viruses are named based on their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines. Virologists and the wider scientific community do this work, so viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV).
Diseases are named to enable discussion on disease prevention, spread, transmissibility, severity and treatment. Human disease preparedness and response is WHO’s role, so diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
ICTV announced “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)” as the name of the new virus on 11 February 2020. This name was chosen because the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus responsible for the SARS outbreak of 2003. While related, the two viruses are different.
WHO announced “COVID-19” as the name of this new disease on 11 February 2020, following guidelines previously developed with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
WHO and ICTV were in communication about the naming of both the virus and the disease.
What name does WHO use for the virus?
From a risk communications perspective, using the name SARS can have unintended consequences in terms of creating unnecessary fear for some populations, especially in Asia which was worst affected by the SARS outbreak in 2003.
For that reason and others, WHO has begun referring to the virus as “the virus responsible for COVID-19” or “the COVID-19 virus” when communicating with the public. Neither of these designations are intended as replacements for the official name of the virus as agreed by the ICTV.
Material published before the virus was officially named will not be updated unless necessary in order to avoid confusion.
Costa Ricans will learn, on Monday, April 27, the revised measures that the Government will take to gradually resume some activities, always with various restrictions in force, and without ceasing to monitor the behavior of the covid-19.
Health Minister, Daniel Salas Peraza, reiterated, this Saturday, that on Monday it will be announced what that “reactivation” will be like, warning vehemently that this will require a high dose of responsibility from all people.
“We are not in the post-covid stage. We are still at a clear risk that can cause the curve to skyrocket if we do not resume activities very carefully,” said Salas, who in an interview on Thursday explained that every time the cases shoot up (number of patients, deaths and hospitalized in Intensive Care), we will return to restrictive “quarantine” actions.
Until now, Costa Rica has managed to control the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, the number of deaths and the demand for health services, especially the most complex ones, from the covid-19.
According to the data revealed this Saturday, since the first case was detected in country, on March 6, 693 patients have been infected with the coronavirus, of which 242 have now fully recovered. Unfortunately, six patients.
Sitting alone at the conference table this Saturday, Salas explained: “If we neglect all the effort, we can go overboard. We have to do things very carefully, with a lot of discipline, it is a shared responsibility. Let’s continue in this discipline living in times of covid, let’s continue on the line those who can stay at home”.
The minister also revealed this Saturday that the hygienic measures practiced by the population as a result of the pandemic reduced the incidence of diarrhea by 28%.
Until April 4, Costa Rica registered 65,892 cases of diarrhea, while at the same date last year there were 91,464 cases. There are 25,572 fewer sick this year, the minister reported.
The minister recognized that there is a risk of new pandemic waves, so the country needs to keep the transmission of the virus in a controlled manner.
“No one here has pandemic experience, but there is a risk of pandemic waves. Costa Rica needs to maintain this transmission but in a controlled way: that we take control of the virus, and not that the virus dominates us.” said Daniel Salas, Minister of Health
Answering the question on re-infection, “It’s not from another world,” said Minister Salas, in explaining that the SARS-CoV-2 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus that causes the coronavirus disease COVID-19 is expected to follow the pattern of other viruses we have in our planet, that our immune system creates anti-bodies that prevent re-infection for a period of time, maybe a year, maybe less.
Economic impact
In addition to the severe impact on the health system in all countries of the world, the covid-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented economic and social crisis.
In Costa Rica, the Central Bank forecasts a 3.6% drop in production this year, the largest since the crisis of the 1980s when it fell to 7.3% (in 1982), and higher than the 1% that decreased in the 2009 global financial crisis.
A substantial increase in the unemployment rate is expected due to the closure of businesses, and institutions such as the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) expect sharp reductions in their income.
In this case, only in Health insurance (which covers the risks of illness and maternity), the CCSS has seen a drop of more than ¢300,000 daily in worker-employer contributions.
In just over 50 days since the first confirmed case of covid-19 was registered in Costa Rica, the management of the Health authorities has, until now, been able to control the impact of the pandemic. Photo: courtesy
Health Minister, Dr. Daniel Salas, talks about the experiences of the 50 days of covid-19 in Costa Rica, and the numerous lessons learned.
In just over 50 days since the first confirmed case of covid-19 was recorded in Costa Rica, Dr. Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, and his team of experts and government agencies, until now, have been able to control the impact of the pandemic.
The country learned, for example, the importance of promoting teletrabajo (work from home), not only for companies and workers: also because it is good for the environment, the relevance of maintaining basic hygienic measures, such as strict handwashing; with potential to save lives despite being so simple.
Costa Ricans also learned not to expose themselves in public places if it is not absolutely necessary; above all, using the internet or a phone call. They learned to protect their seniors by joining efforts from the public and private sectors to deliver medicines to their doorsteps, or through medical consults by phone.
The accumulated experience, which until now has had good results, could see, this Monday, April 27, President Carlos Alvarado Quesada, and Minister Salas, announce (as was advanced Thursday at the midday press briefing) changes in the mitigation measures that have allowed Costa Rica to keep under control the contagion and deaths from the new coronavirus.
Up to Friday, April 24, 687 people had been confirmed with covid-19; six of them died.
For more than a week there have been more recoveries than new infections: 216 recoveries and for many consecutive days, the number of active cases dropped. There are fewer people in hospitals and in intensive care.
The famous curve has remained stable, despite the behavior of some, who have insisted on taking to the streets when they don’t need to, not even respecting the vehicular restriction.
“But be careful!” The Minister of Health does not tire of warning us, that we are still walking on eggshells.
The new normality that everyone talks about and echoed by Salud, will quickly come to a halt and we will be returning to the “quarantines”, sta at home and other measures, if infections, deaths, and hospitalized increase rapidly.
This is how we will live from now on: in a give and take of regulations until a vaccine or an effective cure for the new coronavirus is found.
In a telephone interview with La Nacion, Daniel Salas, conducted an hour after the virtual press conference that he held on Thursday, April 23, at Casa Presidencial, said that “What we are going to announce (on Monday) is how we are going to move with certain parameters, always watching the curve”.
The Minister did not want to advance any specific details, lessening the impact on Monday, but noted the experience of Singapore, which had controlled the curve, but did not take into account their immigration situation, living in rooming hours and the cases shot up.
“No one is an expert at knowing the exact route, but the fact of having navigated for several consecutive weeks with covid-19 gives us some perspective on how we can do a stabilization, if you will. We would like to have that crystal ball to know what will happen if we let go here and there. You have to let go to see what happens; if not, we go backwards”.
“Timely decisions. Among them, the suspension of massive concentrations attributed to the favorable numbers of patients and hospitalizations in the case of Costa Rica,” said Salas.
Among the right calls was the suspension of massive events, noted the Minister. “If we had waited a week or a little longer when very big events were coming, we could have had a more difficult curve to control,” said Salas.
Other measures that Salas attributes to Costa Rica’s low number of infections and deaths is the closing of borders and the suspension of the school year, decreased vehicular circulation at night and closure of businesses that had face-to-face contact with customers, such as retail stores, malls, bars, casinos and more.
“Nor can I detract from the social response. Yes, there have been some difficult moments because it is a hard situation, but in general, there has been an important commitment from the population, not from all, but it has been understood that we cannot wait to shed tears for more people in the ICU to wait to take the corresponding actions.
“The country has come together. They are all collaborating: private companies, academia, legislators, the Judiciary … because we all bear the burden of responsibility for covid-19,” said Salas.
In the interview, Minister Salas did not want to tip his hand of what is to come next week or the next or the next after that, what restrictions will be loosened, those not or what the new normal will be on the other side of the pandemic.
Salas has not waivered in siding with caution, insisting that we’re not out of the woods yet, that “we are still in a fragile scenario”.
“We have to be very careful handling ourselves in this difficult line, where the social and economic part also comes into play. If we move to one side, we affect the economic and social, but we can also affect people’s health and life.
“We have to program ourselves because we have to drive on that difficult route, not always so clear to see,” concluded Salas.
They miss us and we are present in the minds of potential tourists in our main markets. Remembering Costa Rica and in these weeks of quarantined in their countries, ours stands out for the diversity of natural attractions and biodiversity, the fullness that is experienced when feeling the experience of a rainforest, the incomparable beauty of our coasts, high-quality coffee, diverse fauna, healthy gastronomy with a variety of fruits and vegetables, but above all the warmth of the Ticos.
That is how the Costa Rican government describes the good news reflected in recent international media, such as Good Morning America, Lonely Planet, The Times, Condé Nast Traveller, Matador Network, Canadian Traveller, Profession Voyages, Forbes, El Mundo de España, among others that have highlighted Costa Rica as a destination to consider once the coronavirus crisis is over.
Visit Costa Rica’s social networks share content about relaxation, gastronomy and natural attractions to keep the country brand present in the minds of potential tourists who will return in the future.
ABC’s Good Morning America shared the story of the Ashton family, of London, who spent 2 weeks creating their own tropical forest in the basement of their home, after the unexpected cancellation of the desired trip to Costa Rica due to COVID-19. The story was also shared on the magazine’s social platforms with more than 8 million followers.
According to Dan Ashton, his daughters Florence (8 years old) and Eloise (7 years old), as they were excited and had been investigating the animals and were even counting the days
“They were wildly excited about it, had been researching the animals they hoped to see for a while and had been meticulously counting down the sleeps since Christmas.
“They understandably devastated, counting the days to materialize the long-awaited trip scheduled for the first two weeks in April,” Dan Ashton said of his daughters, Florence, 8 and Eloise, 7.
@Nigelmarven our family trip to Costa Rica got cancelled due to Coronavirus, so our budding naturalists got busy in the basement. Thought you’d appreciate this: pic.twitter.com/h3glNRIQqa
“The most important thing right now for all of us is to stay home, safe and protecting others. When we can make these amazing trips again we will appreciate them even more,” concluded the father of this family highly interested in knowing Costa Rica.
Costa Rica also found echo in the digital magazine Matador Network accompanied by a report on the Osa Peninsula. Several publications in the US version of Condé Nast Traveler, within the framework of the Earth Day celebration, praised Costa Rica as a “green destination”.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Traveller produced an extensive report titled “Listening to the sounds of the tropical forest”, which mentioned the Arenal and Rincón de la Vieja volcanoes, biodiversity and Costa Rican fauna.
In parallel, publications were also made on Visit Costa Rica, as well as Take an Essential Moment. In the latter, sessions of meditation, yoga, tour of waterfalls and beaches were presented.
“Costa Rica has earned with decades of work a highly respected place in the world as a tourist destination that we must take care of while we plan how to reactivate our tourism sector to get it out of this unprecedented crisis,” said María Amalia Revelo, Minister of Tourism.
The minister added that the ICT public relations and advertising teams have developed strategic actions to maintain a connection with our stakeholders in the main source markets, this includes sharing audiovisual brushstrokes of landscapes, gastronomy, well-being and activities to do with the family during the quarantine.
Europe also remembers Costa Rica
The name of Costa Rica reached the European continent, such is the case in Spain, in El Mundo, which published a series of coloring mandalas inspired by animals of the Costa Rican fauna such as the hummingbird, the jaguar, the sloth and the owl.
Spain’s public relations agency Blueroom announced that the May edition of Condé Nast Traveler will feature a report from Playa Nosara, in Guanacaste, nominated it in the category of International Destination for visiting in the future in the Gold List awards 2020.
Lonely Planet Trips (Spanish version) on Instagram has dedicated the “Photo of the Day” section to Costa Rica on 2 occasions, featuring destinations in Monteverde and Tortuguero, on April 11 and 20, respectively.
In Germany, we developed a coloring and activity book for the little ones, and at the same time they learn about the flora, fauna and culture of Costa Rica. This book was also replicated for France and the UK and shared with the tourism industry.
The Times published in its latest edition the positive story of the British family who vacationed in Costa Rica and had to live part of their quarantine in what they describe as paradise.
In social networks throughout Europe, the ICT has #TicoThursday!, in collaboration with Joe Wicks “The Body Coach TV” recognized personal trainer in the United Kingdom, who visited the country and shared with his followers of the networks Social of Costa Rica in Europe.
These exercise sessions were carried out during his stay in Costa Rica.
Finally and in other latitudes, the Argentine tourism blog Voy de Viaje highlighted Costa Rica’s Zona de los Santos as one of the must-see when you can travel the again for its scenic beauty and its high-quality coffee.
RECOPE plans to replace 'super' gasoline with "ECO 95' starting the end of May
The Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aaresep) – Regulatory Authority of Public Services – approved a decrease in fuel prices, except for super and regular gasoline, which will maintain its March 4 prices, the difference to be used by the government to fund the subsidy for people affected at work by the health crisis.
While all other fuel prices will drop, regular and super will maintain their March 4 pricing
The drop in prices reflects the decrease in prices of fuels in international markets, from which Recope purchases and imports to Costa Rica, due to a reduction in demand for crude oil, due to the spread of COVID-19 and the excess supply, where there are no longer systems for its storage. The price of a barrel of oil was quoted at the beginning of this week was – US$37.
In accordance with the provisions of the recently approved Ley 9840, regular and super gasoline prices will maintain the same, while diesel will have a decrease of ¢63 per liter, as will other fuels. See here current fuel prices at the pumps.
The resolution will take effect the day after its publication in the official newspaper La Gaceta, which is to occur within five working days.
Today, Friday, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, announced a strategy to protect seniors (personas adultas mayores in Spanish) against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in order to avoid contagion, abandonment and death.
Juan Luis Bermúdez, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion and Executive President of IMAS explained at the mid-day press briefing that special attention must be paid to seniors, that account for almost one million people.
By the numbers, there 913,509 people over the age of 60, where 76% are between the ages of 60 and 79, and 24% are over 80.
“This strategy implements actions that are aimed at informing, educating, caring for and protecting our seniors from the risks of COVID-19. Primary care teams and technicians from other institutions add to the capabilities that allow us to have the digital file, so that we can identify those in greatest need, in order to serve them according to the provisions of institutional protocols and to protect them from the risk of loneliness, abandonment, contagion and death,” he explained.
The strategy has the support of the National Council of the Elderly (Conapam), as well as the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is training the institutional staff and provides direct support to the most vulnerable families.
The president of the IMAS also said that this strategy will focus on 3 axes:
An information and risk campaign on COVID-19 for seniors.
From the Ebais (local clinics) they will carry out an approach from detection to follow-up of people with higher risk factors.
Approach through 3 groups: those over 80 years of age, living alone, with associated diseases; those over 60 years of age with a history of chronic diseases; and finally, those over 60 years of age without risk factors.
“With these groups, we will have a differentiated strategy to provide them with follow-up as is appropriate for seniors,throughout the country,” Bermúdez said, before indicating that the National Emergency Commission (CNE) will also collaborate in this through the Municipal Emergency Committees throughout the country.
Madriz said that “the Costa Rican Government, as a solidary State, has disposed of a joint work during the last few weeks that allows to generate a comprehensive approach and precision health partner to the older population”.
As of April 24, the Ministry of Health confirmed 687 cases of covid-19 in the country, with an age range of one to 87. These are 328 women and 359 men, of whom 620 are Costa Rican and 67 foreigners.
Health Minister Daniel Salas
In the Friday afternoon briefing, Health Minister, Daniel Salas, explained, the positive cases are recorded in 59 of the 82 cantons of the seven provinces. By age, they are 653 adults (35 of whom are seniors) and 34 minors.
There are now 216 recovered with an age range of one to 86, of which 103 are women and 113 are men, by age we have: 203 adults (13 seniors) and 13 minors.
There are six regrettable deaths, all men with an age range of 45 to 87 years.
As of today, Friday, 12 people are hospitalized, of which seven of them are in intensive care with an age range of 44 to 76.
To date, a total of 12,342 samples have been processed.
The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, also announced that the hardware stores will now be allowed to open from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm and with a 50% capacity.
In addition, sanitary authorizations are enabled for the operation of health services in mobile units, complying with the provisions of decree 41045-S.
The youngest patient with the coronavirus detected in Costa Rica has already recovered.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the one-year-old tested negative, this a few days after an infected 2-year-old boy was also tested negative for the covid-19.
In total, 34 minors (under the age of 18) have contracted the disease in national territory, of which 12 have already recovered.
All of them have endured the disease at home without major complications.
Minors are treated for the coronavirus at the Hospital Nacional de Niños (Children’s Hospital in San Jose).
While other countries in the Americas face the worst phase of the coronavirus epidemic, Costa Rica accumulates six days of sustained reduction in active cases and the lowest mortality from the epidemic outbreak on the continent.
A line of people wait at a distribution point for fruits and vegetables donated by local producers who have not been able to export due to the coronavirus outbreak, in San José, Costa Rica. April 13, 2020. REUTERS / Juan Carlos Ulate.
Once again, the small and stable Central American democracy emerges (Costa Rica) as the best of its kind, with an advantageous universal public health system and a population that, for the most part, has complied with the sanitary measures issued by the Government.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Health reported a total of 687 coronavirus cases on Friday (April 24), 48 days after confirming the first patient, an American tourist from New York. It is the accumulated total infections after eight consecutive days in which the new patients have been less than the recovered.
The sum of new cases in the last eight days is 38 and recovered 128. This allowed active cases to decrease from 564 to 465 in the country of 5 million inhabitants. Meanwhile, the United States is about to take the place of Europe as the new focus of the epidemic, after surpassing the million infected.
Costa Rican health authorities report six deaths associated with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. This places the case fatality rate at 0.9%, the lowest among countries on the continent, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, in the United States.
On Friday, only 12 coronavirus patients were in hospitals in the country. Of these, only seven were in the intensive care unit of hospitals equipped to care for patients with this virus.
“The response, in general from the population, has been satisfactory. They have understood the historic moment we are experiencing,” said Health Minister Daniel Salas on Wednesday.
“We have had a slight decrease (in active cases), but we are walking on an eggshell floor because the vast majority of people have not been infected. That is why we must be aware that a lot is missing,” he added at a press conference.
Although there are no conclusive explanations, experts attribute the good results, so far, to the comprehensive and free health system, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), to the early detection of cases and to the majority compliance with the measures that the Ministry of Health recommends every day: hygiene, quarantine and physical distancing.
According to a Google report, based on mobile phone statistics, visits to shops and recreational places in Costa Rica fell 84% and to parks and beaches 82%; similar numbers to countries like Peru, which imposed a mandatory quarantine.
While most nations are engaged in an all-out fight to get mechanical ventilators to help critically ill COVID-19 breathe, Costa Rica has some 400 units and recently acquired some 300 more.
SUCCESS
From March 18 – and until May 15 – Costa Rica has kept the entry of foreigners to its territory closed and has reinforced police surveillance at the land borders, in particular the northern border, where hundreds of Nicaraguans entered each week irregularly, the largest foreign population in the small country.
Currently, only Costa Rican nationals and foreigner residents are allowed entry, subject to a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
In addition, all mass events are prohibited and the school on hold indefinitely. Restaurants work at 50% capacity. Bars, discos, and casinos remain closed. Utilities such as water and electricity cannot cut service due to non-payment, though President Carlos Alvarado asks those who can pay, should do so.
There is a bill before the legislative committee to postpone housing rents for up to three months, tenants catching up on their payments later in the year or early next year.
The country in effect is not under curfew or lockdown, as other countries in the region, putting in place restrictions on businesses that deal face-to-face with the public, such as retail shops, malls, restaurants, service businesses. Currently, businesses have to close by 7:00 pm on weekdays, operating at 50% capacity and closed on weekends.
Supermarkets, corner stores and pharmacies not restricted closed.
Vehicular restrictions across the country are in place during the week and only for grocery shopping and pharmacy on weekends from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm and total ban (with some exceptions) nightly from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am.
Weekend driving is only for local shopping. The fine for violating the restriction is about US$200 (¢110,000 colones), plus six points on the license and seizure of license plates and/or vehicle.
Beaches and national parks continue closed.
Violation of a quarantine order ranges in fines from US$790 to US$3,850 (¢450,000 to ¢2.2 million colones) and possible criminal charges.
“There are hypotheses that must be verified and what must happen in the following weeks must be seen, but I do believe that a success has been the strict follow-up of cases to see the transmission chains,” infectologist María Luisa Ávila told Reuters, who is a former Minister of Health (2006-2011) and former cChief of Infectious Disease at the National Children’s Hospital.
Although opposition deputies ask for massive tests, the Ministry of Health responds that it applies the necessary, according to the suspected cases they come across. The official figure (April 24) is 12,342 tests, 235 per 100,000 inhabitants, an amount that places the country at the midpoint in Latin America.
The slow progress of the disease in Costa Rica contrasts with that of its southern neighbor, Panama, which as of April 24, accumulates 5,166 cases of coronavirus and 146 deaths, with a population close to 4.2 million inhabitants, one million less than Costa Rica.
In Nicaragua, a neighbor of northern Costa Rica and the origin of 8% of the country’s population, the Government of Daniel Ortega only reports 10 cases and two deaths, although independent doctors and international organizations fear that the cases of infection is far from reality.
In fact, the laxity of Nicaragua, which has increased massive events, worries Costa Rica, whose government said it does not rule out taking international actions and asking the World Health Organization (WHO) to supervise the actions of the Ortega administration.
The article is translated from the Reuters report in Spanish on April 23; with editing and updated figures by the Q.
CNN – The company that makes Lysol and Dettol is urging customers not to consume its cleaning products after President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of injecting disinfectants to protect people from coronavirus.
Reckitt Benckiser (RBGLY), a British company, warned Friday that human consumption of disinfectant products is dangerous. It issued the statement following “recent speculation and social media activity.”
“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company said in a statement.
RB said products should only be “used as intended and in line with usage guidelines.
“We have a responsibility in providing consumers with access to accurate, up-to-date information as advised by leading public health experts,” the company said.
The statement followed remarks from President Trump on Thursday on the use of disinfectants.
“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning … it would be interesting to check that,” Trump said. “It sounds interesting to me,” he added.
CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta was quick to point out that this is simply wrong.
“He also said it needs to be studied. Actually, it doesn’t. I mean we know the answer to this one,” he said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 on Thursday. “I think everybody would know that that would be dangerous and counter-productive.”
Ingesting or injecting disinfectants is dangerous, according to a medical expert employed by the Trump administration. Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Stephen Hahn told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “I certainly wouldn’t recommend the internal ingestion of a disinfectant.”
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regularly warns the public against drinking bleach, or even inhaling fumes from bleach. It’s also irritating to skin.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said calls about poisonings with cleaners and disinfectants had increased more than 20% in the first three months of 2020 — as coronavirus cleaning increased — than from the same period a year earlier. Among cleaners, bleaches accounted for the largest percentage increase in calls from 2019 to 2020.
The CDC recommends using soap and water or bleach to kill the virus. Rubbing alcohol that’s at least 70% alcohol will also kill it on surfaces; 60% for your hands.
Naty linked her life to that of the man she loved the previous December 7. Photo: Courtesy of Angie Lucía Pérez.
Angie Lucía Pérez says that only God has given her and her family the strength to cope with the death of her sister, Shirley Natalia Pérez Barrientos, 28, who appeared dead and tied hand and foot in a river in Platanar de San Carlos.
Naty tied the know in December with the man she lived with common law for the last 11 years, the same who found her body in a river in Platanar de San Carlos. Photo: Courtesy of Angie Lucía Pérez.
The woman assures that in the midst of the pain for the loss they have clung to the good memories they have of the young mother, whom many lovingly called her Naty.
“She was the oldest of three, in June she was going to be 29 years old. She got married last December after living common law for eleven years.
“My sister was very, very happy because of that, since she got married, she had a purer and different, greater joy. We are Catholics and that is why the sacrament of marriage means a lot, especially when it allows someone to get out of the sin of living with a person without being married,” said Angie.
The OIJ reported on Thursday that the autopsy revealed that the woman’s cause of death was suffocation by immersion, confirming that the murderer drowned her in the river in which she was found.
Authorities have yet to reveal whether Naty was sexually assaulted, but they did determine that she was killed between 9 pm and 11 pm Tuesday.
The home where Naty lived
The body was found in the waters of the Platanar River, as it passes through the Blue Gorge, in Florencia de San Carlos, a kilometer and a half northeast of the local school.
The lifeless body of Nay was found by her husband after two hours of intense searching. He works on the same property where he lives with his family from 6 pm to 6 am., but on Tuesday morning his older daughter called him to tell him that his mother was nowhere to be seen.
Statistics from the OIJ detail that so far in 2020 in the province of Alajuela there have been 24 homicides, of which seven have occurred in the canton of San Carlos.
Randall Loaiza Montoya, director of the National Center for Biotechnological Innovation
The worst thing that could happen to Costa Rica, in the midst of the current pandemic, is running out of tests to detect the new coronavirus that causes covid-19 disease.
Randall Loaiza Montoya, director of the National Center for Biotechnological Innovation, demonstrated the process during the Thursday covid-19 briefing from Casa Presidencial
Currently, countries around the world are all competing to acquire reagents and laboratory kits to diagnose the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.
The most widely used virus detection method today is RT-PCR, which is approved and promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
This could lead to supply problems in Costa Rica.
Faced with this scenario, the National Center for Biotechnological Innovation (Centro Nacional de Innovaciones Biotecnológicas, CENIBiot) – is investigating alternative methods for detecting the virus, seeking to adapt protocols to replace parts or stages of commercial kits, currently used in official laboratories, with others performing the same function, but employing inputs and reagents with lower demand, and with validated performance with clinical samples.
This should make it possible to have our own, nationally produced tests available.
“In general terms, the detection of the virus by means of RT-PCR consists of three steps: the extraction of viral genetic material, reverse transcription and detection. It is technically possible to replace components, reagents, or technologies for these steps with others that have a lower demand pressure on the global market and are presumably more easily accessible.
The great challenge lies in ensuring that the sensitivity and clinical specificity of an alternative protocol is comparable to that of commercial kits. We have set up a work team and a large logistics support network that will allow us to accelerate the prototype and testing process, in order to make the results available to the competent authorities as soon as possible,” explained Randall Loaiza Montoya, director of the CENIBiot.
According to CENIBiot’s criteria, said method could be technically modified with components or reagents of less demand in the market, which would facilitate local manufacturing.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“Costa Rica possesses human talent with great capabilities; if we work together, we will have more and better options to overcome this pandemic, not only in medical terms, but also in terms of scientific, social and economic development. With solidarity and united, we can transform this crisis into an opportunity,” President Carlos Alvarado said.
The first results are expected about four weeks, and new strategic partners are being sought for the validation phase with patient samples, which would take an additional two weeks.
“At MICITT, we have always stressed the importance of being able to contribute to the development of alternative detection for COVID-19; that is why today we are celebrating the fact that, with the support of UNDP, we are taking a first step in the right direction. We hope to continue our support so that we can quickly achieve these goals with Costa Rican talent and scientists,” said Luis Adrián Salazar, Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT).
The study is being carried out by CENIBiot, the National Center for High Technology (Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología, CENAT) in coordination with MICITT, the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Teaching in Nutrition and Health (Instituto Costarricense de Investigación y Enseñanza en Nutrición y Salud, INCIENSA), the Technological Institute of Costa Rica (TEC), the University of Costa Rica (UCR) and other actors such as the Costa Rican Chamber of Industries (CICR), the Foreign Trade Promotion Agency (PROCOMER) and the Speratum company, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
This proposal is complementary to and consistent with the efforts of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and the Ministry of Health to increase diagnostic capabilities, equipment, and facilities. Although other technologies have been proposed, including rapid tests to detect antibodies, to date these do not guarantee the sensitivity offered by the standard of diagnosis via RT-PCR.
“The world is exposed to a common threat that looms large over the most vulnerable populations and countries. There is a risk of backtracking by up to two decades of development; this calls for a rapid response to address this health and socio-economic emergency. We at UNDP recognize Costa Rica’s formidable potential for innovation and technology. We are proud to work with the Ministries of Health and Science and Technology of Costa Rica, and under the leadership of CENIBiot, to ensure that we can provide solutions and hope to the most vulnerable populations,” said José Vicente Troya Rodríguez, UNDP Resident Representative.
For the first phase of this project, UNDP is contributing US$37,500; US$170,000 will, in turn, be provided in kind by CENIBiot (access to equipment, professionals).
“Molecular diagnostic analysis is like a recipe with steps. As an analogy, if we were making soup, the commercial products we currently use are instant soups for example and we do not know their composition. The alternative protocol version is to make the soup from scratch: water, vegetables, salt, meat, seasoning, our own recipe that will allow us to increase the coverage of screening and diagnosis in extreme scenarios, so I am very grateful for the proactive and valuable work of this group of Costa Rican scientists,” said Daniel Salas, Minister of Health.
In the midst of a crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) is requiring the government to pay a debt of ¢1.95 trillion colones to face the lack of income from worker-employer contributions.
In response, Costa Rica President Carlos Alvarado said: “there is no money.” He added that “these amounts, at this time, are not within the reach of the Government or the State”, but he clarified that “that does not mean that it is a rejection” as they seek to find a solution through dialogue.
The ¢1.95 trillion colones (+/- US$3.5 billion dollars) represents almost 70% of the money the Central Government requires this year to pay the salaries of its officials.
Finance Minister Rodrigo Chaves also replied that it is impossible, saying “it is outside the real possibilities of the country and the framework of macroeconomic responsibility”,
He added that in the midst of a pandemic where there is unemployment, companies without incomes and entities without sufficient funds to provide care, “the country must not dedicate disproportionate amounts to a single institution, but must be fair and balanced with all families, companies and institutions”.
The news spread like wildfire on the social networks, some media outlets digging the grave, while others burying the Caja.
Román Macaya, executive president of the CCSS, confirmed that the Board (its nine members) stated that the debt that the State has with the institution (for health insurance and pensions) amounts to ¢1.95 trillion, supported by accounting and financial records of the institution.
He clarified that the estimate does not include the amount that results from the execution of a judicial sentence that obliges the State to finance the first level of health care, that is, the Ebáis (Basic Teams for Comprehensive Care).
“It was suggested that the resources would help to maintain a strengthened institution to deal with the pandemic, to contribute to the economic reactivation of the country and to provide health services in the future with quality and opportunity that requires the Costa Rican population,” said Macaya.
The purpose of the Board’s decision requesting the payment, he explained, is to prevent further affectation of the CCSS, “an institution that is carrying a great burden with the attention of the pandemic and constitutes one of the pillars in the reactivation of the country”.
Though President Alvarado maintained firm that the “there is no money” to cover the request of the CCSS Board, he assured that “The Government of the Republic will never, ever, leave the Caja without the necessary backing to take care of us as a country. It is my guarantee as president”.
La @CCSSdeCostaRica es un pilar fundamental de Costa Rica. Tengan certeza que desde el Gobierno estamos trabajando para garantizar que cuente con todos los recursos necesarios y siga protegiendo a nuestro país. Vivimos tiempos muy adversos, pero no nos daremos por vencidos.
Despite the tough stand by heads of the Treasury and the Central Bank, that nothing could be done and that the country could not go bankrupt to save the Caja, President Alvarado was more conciliatory and affirmed that he was committed to strengthening and developing the Caja and proposed creating a bilateral team “to look for solutions with creativity”.
“On the part of the Board, proposals were made that were emphatically rejected by the minister and the president of the Central (Bank). A gigantic new challenge opens. What the CCSS means for our people has been clearly demonstrated, there are those who do not stop to meditate and seek solutions to avoid their bankruptcy. We have to join forces and start raising our voices. We cannot allow this,” said the President in a message on Twitter.
Rico’s Digest – We’ve all been there. We go out to the shopping, wear the mask, the gloves to protect ourselves. I even, after placing the groceries in the trunk, wipe down the car keys, the cards before going into the waller, my phone (if I took it out at all), my exposed arms, and gel my hands.
At home, before anything else, I wash my hands.
On a couple of occasions, I have even wiped down my hair, a change of clothes, wipe down the sandals. On one occasion, I sprayed myself (and my wife) with Lysol, before the task of wiping down all the purchases, which remained outside before coming into the house.
My car is in the sun, the heat of Santa Ana, the windows and truck open, let nature do its thing.
Sounds extreme. And it probably is. But it gives me peace of mind to know I have done all I can to minimize the risk of tracking the virus into my home.
An article published by The New York Times reveals that the new coronavirus (covid-19) is unlikely to adhere to a person’s clothing, hair, or beard, so there would be no need for a change of clothing or bathe upon arriving at home.
Of course, the NY Times clarified that it’s not necessary to change clothes or take a shower when you return home only for those who practice social distancing and who make occasional trips to the supermarket or pharmacy or other things (banking, for example) only in exceptional cases.
You should, however, always wash your hands.
As the article emphasizes, which is based on the criteria of scientists and experts in infectious diseases, the most effective weapon to combat the virus will always be in handwashing.
“While it is true that when an infected person sneezes or coughs, they can throw viral droplets and smaller particles into the air, most of them will fall to the ground.
“Studies show that some small viral particles could float in the air for about half an hour, but they don’t swarm like gnats and are unlikely to collide with your clothes. A droplet that is small enough to float in air for a while also is unlikely to deposit on clothing because of aerodynamics,” the reports quotes Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech.
Marr, who used the laws of aerodynamics to explain the phenomenon, added: “The droplets are small enough that they’ll move in the air around your body and clothing.”
Marr explains further, in her mini-lesson in aerodynamics.
“The best way to describe it is that they follow the streamlines, or airflow, around a person, because we move relatively slowly. It’s kind of like small insects and dust particles flowing in the streamlines around a car at slow speed but potentially slamming into the windshield if the car is going fast enough,” said Dr. Marr.
“Humans don’t usually move fast enough for this to happen. As we move, we push air out of the way, and most of the droplets and particles get pushed out of the way, too. Someone would have to spray large droplets through talking — a spit talker — coughing or sneezing for them to land on our clothes. The droplets have to be large enough that they don’t follow the streamlines,” Dr. Marr continued.
In this sense, The New York Times recommends that if someone sneezes on you or coughs very close to you, it would be necessary to go home, change and shower. But the rest of the time, take comfort that your slow-moving body is pushing air and viral particles away from your clothes, a result of simple physics.
While thorough hand-washing and carrying sanitizer are great ways of combating the disease, carrying a handbag could be inadvertently sabotaging your attempts to stay germ-free.
Not in the hair
By the same laws of aerodynamics, The New York Times explains you should not be worried about viral contamination of your hair or beard if you are practicing social distancing, that the covid-19 is unlikely to stay on your hair or beard.
“You have to think through the whole process of what it would take for someone to become infected,” said Andrew Janowski, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at St. Louis Children’s Hospital at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“You have someone who sneezes, and they have to have X amount of virus in the sneeze. Then there have to be so many drops that land on you,” said Janowski.
“Next, you would have to touch precisely the part of your hair or clothing that has those droplets, which would have already had a significant reduction in viral particles. So, you would have to touch that and then touch some of the parts of your face that are conducive to come into contact with the virus. When you review the chain of events that must occur, there are many things that have to happen precisely. Therefore, the risk is very low, ” concluded the expert.
As to shoes, the article recommends washing them in the washing machine. Wiping the soles of your shoes with wipes would not be an option, as that action could transfer germs directly to your hands. Leaving them outside the house would also be a good option.
Should you worry about doing laundry and sorting clothes?
The answer says the NY Times article depends on whether you’re doing routine laundry or cleaning up after a sick person.
Routine laundry should not cause worry. Washing your clothes in regular laundry detergent, following the fabric instructions, followed by a stint in the dryer is more than enough to remove the virus — if it was even there in the first place.
“We do know that viruses can deposit on clothing (from droplets) and then be shaken loose into the air with movement, but you would need a lot of viruses for this to be a concern, far more than a typical person would encounter while going for a walk outdoors or going to a grocery store,” Dr. Marr said.
The exception is if you are in close contact with a sick person.
Walking Outdoors and Your Shoes
Lidia Morawska, professor and director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, explained that the chances of catching the virus when going outdoors is extremely low, provided you practice social distancing.
“Outdoors is safe, and there is certainly no cloud of virus-laden droplets hanging around,” said the professor.
So what should we do about our shoes? The New York Times recommends that iIf your shoes are washable, you can launder them.
Also, cleaning the soles of your shoes with a wipe is not recommended.
Dr. Janowski said shoes are not a big worry for contracting coronavirus, but it might make you squeamish if you think about where your shoes have been. “If you want to talk about bacteria, we know bacteria love to live on shoes. You never know what you stepped in,” Dr. Janowski said.
Not only does it waste a good wipe (they are still in short supply), but it brings germs that would stay on the sole of your shoe or on the ground directly to your hands.
Health authorities expressed their concern on Thursday as cases of Dengue have tripled so far in 2020 compared to the previous year, and they have asked the population to reinforce measures against this virus.
Health requests the population to eliminate mosquito breeding sites
The Ministry of Health reported 1,760 cases of Dengue during the first quarter of 2020, more than triple the 542 cases that were registered in the same period of 2019.
The regions with the most cases are Huetar Caribe with 590 and Central North with 241 cases.
At the beginning of the rainy season in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Health calls on the population to combat the Aedes Aegypti mosquito by eliminating all kinds of breeding sites.
“We are in a difficult moment where the country faces COVID-19, but unfortunately the other diseases continue their cycle, that is why we call on the population to help us at home, with the elimination of breeding sites,” said in a statement Rodrigo Marín, the director of Surveillance of the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health indicated that it continues to carry out control and mitigation tasks, but insisted on the need for the population to remove from their homes all objects in which water can stagnate and that favor the reproduction of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, that transmits the disease.
Last year, Costa Rica accounted for 8,179 cases of dengue, 200% more than the 2,735 registered in 2018.
Since the virus appeared in 1993, 23 people have died from Dengue in Costa Rica, the last one in 2013, which was the year with the highest number of patients with almost 50,000.
As everyone stays home to remain safe from the covid-19, a good practice in addition to washing hands frequently is to do a quick check around your home:
Empty out stagnant water from old tires, in any type of container, empty flower pots, buckets, etc and if you have pets, their drinking water tanks
Use mosquito repellent, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants, in particular at dusk
Cut your weeds, grass, wild vegetations – that is, keep your yard clean
If you use mosquito nets, give them a once over to see if there are any holes
The U.S. Embassy in San Jose and the U.S. State Department have coordinated with United Airlines to offer an additional commercial flight from Juan Santamaria Airport (SJO) in San Jose, Costa Rica to Houston, Texas (IAH) on Thursday, April 30.
The flight will depart SJO at 12:00 pm and arrive at IAH at 4:46 pm. This flight is open to public booking; you are encouraged to book ASAP as seats are limited. There may also be a few seats remaining on the United flight from SJO to IAH on Monday, April 27. Please visit www.united.com for further information regarding availability.
Payment and booking will be done directly with United Airlines. The cost of the flight will be based on the passenger’s final destination. This price is set by United Airlines. Passengers can purchase a one-way ticket or round trip.
Passengers wishing to book connecting flights from Houston to other destinations in the United States or beyond should do so independently through United or other airlines. The U.S. Embassy is not able to assist with arranging onward travel from Houston. Policies regarding luggage allowances and seating arrangements will be managed by United Airlines.
For additional questions regarding this flight or airline requirements, please contact the airline.
Passengers traveling with pets and Emotion Support or Service Animals will need to consult with United regarding additional fees and space availability. United Airlines does not allow pets to travel as cargo. Proper documentation and veterinary certificates will be required. Find more details when making your booking or by visiting this link.
For more information on requirements for pets to enter the United States, please click on this link.
Health regulations for boarding these flights will be managed according to Costa Rican Ministry of Health guidelines. At this time that includes medical personnel monitoring passenger lines for people with COVID 19 symptoms, and asking passengers with symptoms to self-identify.
Health regulations for arrival at Houston’s IAH airport are managed by the airport and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) under guidance from CDC and state health officials.
All passengers will be subject to Costa Rica immigration and customs laws and Airline policies. The U.S. Embassy is not able to intervene if people are stopped for violations or do not meet airline regulations.
U.S. Citizens must have valid passports to enter the United States. If you do not have a valid U.S. passport, please email ACSsanjose@state.gov immediately to apply for an Emergency Passport.
Foreign national passengers must possess an official travel document from their country of nationality and permission to approach a United States port of entry such as a legal permanent resident card, U.S. visa, or Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) pre-approval. For more information on U.S. entry follow this link: https://www.cbp.gov/travel.
For information on requesting an emergency visa application appointment call 4000-1976, or visit: www.ustraveldocs.com/cr/cr-niv-expeditedappointment.asp. Note that foreign nationals seeking visas must qualify for a nonimmigrant visa under applicable laws, and that per U.S. Presidential Proclamation, most foreign nationals who have been in areas of highest COVID-19 incidence within the past 14 days must be refused embarkation to the United States. See complete details at www.ustraveldocs.com/cr.
The U.S. Embassy in San Jose will continue to monitor traffic and travel restrictions associated with COVID-19 preventative measures. Please be sure you are enrolled in the Safe Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) at https://travel.state.gov/content/travel.html to receive the latest updates. You can also find updated information on the U.S. Embassy website at https://cr.usembassy.gov/.
Please be aware that foreigners will not be allowed to enter Costa Rica until after current border restrictions are lifted. People with residency status who depart Costa Rica at this time will not be allowed to re-enter Costa Rica using their residency status until the emergency period is lifted by the Government of Costa Rica.
You can email any additional questions you may have to ACSSANJOSE@state.gov. We will respond to your email as quickly as possible.
The foregoing is provided by the U.S. Embassy in San Jose. Visit the alert page here.
Daniel Salas, the Minister of Health, on Wednesday, alone at the briefing from Casa Presidencial, had a mellower demeanor that in days before, leaving behind the scoldings to which we had accustomed to, rating taking the time to congratulate most Costa Ricans for staying at home.
Minister of Health Daniel Salas congratulated those Ticos who are paying attention by staying at home. Photo: Rafael Pacheco / GN
Salas thanked the many who have followed the recommendations of social distancing and hygiene by constantly washing their hands, as well as cleaning the surfaces they touch and following the protocols when coughing and sneezing, as all of this has allowed the country to maintain the number of positive cases manageable.
“Many understand that it is a delicate moment and that is why they should not go out to public places unless it is essential to do so. I also congratulate those who have complied with the health orders, that population that shows a level of understanding because it is a challenging country that depends of all,” Salas said.
The minister also stressed that when we get out of this health emergency our lives will not be the same again, since we will have to get used to a new way of living and in which regular hand washing will be key.
This Wednesday, April 22, 12 new cases of COVID-19 were announced for a total of 681 infected people, since the first infected was released on March 6.
In addition, a total of 180 people have recovered. The number of active cases dropping to 495.
The number of patients in hospitals is 11, of which 8 are in intensive care.
Dance instructor Morgan Jenkins makes a video in Los Angeles, California in front of a mural during the coronavirus pandemic on April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
We know that not everyone who comes into contact with the novel coronavirus ends up getting sick. But just how many people out there have the virus and are feeling fine — and are perhaps unknowingly spreading it to others?
People stand on their balconies in an apartment building in New Jersey overlooking the Hudson River and New York City during the coronavirus pandemic on March 30, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar
New data suggests it could be a lot.
For example, 60 percent of personnel aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt who tested positive for the coronavirus appeared healthy at the time, Reuters reported. Other data — from Iceland and elsewhere — have uncovered similar patterns.
With testing capacity still limited, most governments continue to focus on people who are showing symptoms of Covid-19 so that they can be isolated. This is important for slowing the virus’s spread. But it also means that globally, we have lagged in finding people who are carrying the virus but aren’t currently sick — and might be spreading it.
(The early evidence that seemingly healthy people can still infect others with the coronavirus is one of the main reasons behind the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that everyone wear a mask in public: so that people who don’t know they have the virus don’t accidentally infect others with it.)
So the big question everyone — including infectious disease experts — has is: How big of a role are these “silent spreaders” playing in this pandemic? It’s certainly significant.
People who feel fine are spreading the coronavirus
People were most infectious right before they started to show symptoms
Throughout the pandemic, public health officials have focused on the advice that people who have symptoms of Covid-19 should self-isolate. This is crucial, to be sure. But it is also becoming “increasingly clear that there are people who are either asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic who can transmit” the virus, Carlos del Rio, chair of the Department of Global Health at Emory University, told Vox.
In fact, people can start transmitting the virus 24 to 48 hours before they start showing symptoms, he said in a briefing for the Infectious Disease Society of America.
This timing detail is no small matter. And new research on presymptomatic transmission in people who did eventually experience symptoms underscores why.
A study in Nature Medicine of 94 confirmed Covid-19 patients found that people were most infectious right before they started to show symptoms. The researchers obtained data about people who had gotten Covid-19 as well as those who had been around them before and after they got sick. Based on this, they estimated that 44 percent of people who caught the virus from the study’s participants had gotten it from people who felt healthy at the time.
They also found that someone who is mildly sick could have been just as contagious as someone with more severe symptoms. Maybe they aren’t coughing as much as someone feeling more seriously ill, but the virus can still spread through talking, sneezing, and coughing.
And what about people who are carrying the virus but don’t ever get sick — the true asymptomatic carriers? Can they spread it, too?
We simply don’t know yet. Hopefully, further studies will figure this out, because it could lead to more informed decisions about how to eventually end the pandemic.
How many people are carrying the coronavirus and don’t know it?
A new study out of Iceland, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, offers important insight about how prevalent asymptomatic carriers may be. Iceland has tested 6 percent of the entire island nation’s population — the most testing per capita of any country so far.
Part of the study tested those ill with Covid-19 symptoms, but another part involved testing a substantial sample of the general population feeling well — or at least with no greater symptoms than a mild common cold. Of those who tested positive for the virus, 43 percent were asymptomatic. So it’s possible that, at least in Iceland at that point in time, almost half of the people who had coronavirus didn’t know it.
Dance instructor Morgan Jenkins makes a video in Los Angeles, California in front of a mural during the coronavirus pandemic on April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
This percentage likely varies from place to place, depending on the timing and severity of the current outbreak.
For example, two New York City hospitals recently tested more than 99 percent of women who delivered babies in their wards over the course of two weeks. Of the 215 women, about 2 percent had Covid-19 symptoms (all of them tested positive for the virus). And about 14 percent of the symptom-free women also tested positive. This means that about 88 percent of people who had the virus in this group had no symptoms at the time of testing.
So one in eight women admitted to the labor and delivery wards — who seemed healthy — nevertheless was carrying the virus.
Although these studies looked at specific populations at specific points in time, they can provide a general idea of what might be going on elsewhere.
How many people catch the coronavirus and never get sick at all?
We know that people who get Covid-19 start feeling sick anywhere from two to 14 days after they first catch the virus. But there also seems to be a subset of people who test positive for it but never develop any symptoms.
This isn’t that unusual. Other viruses often have many people carrying them who don’t get sick. For example, a study in the UK found that about 77 percent of people who had had the current flu strain never got sick (some studies have pointed to lower rates, which also shows how little we know even about common illnesses).
For the norovirus, a common stomach bug, about a third of people who get it don’t become ill — but can still transmit it to others.
And that number is even higher for other viruses, like polio, which only causes illness in some 5 to 10 percent of infections — but the asymptomatic carriers can still spread it to others, who might get the full-blown disease.
For SARS-CoV-2, the World Health Organization cited the statistic that about 75 percent of people who seem asymptomatic when they test positive for the virus eventually go on to develop symptoms of Covid-19. And a series of recent reports have backed that up.
One study, which examined a nursing home in Washington state early on in the coronavirus outbreak, found that more than half of residents who tested positive (57 percent) had no signs of the illness. One week later, however, more than three-quarters of them had developed symptoms.
The mean time for them to have started feeling sick was just three days after they had gotten tested. This shows just how narrow of a window one-shot testing can be.
Another study, which looked at passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, also tried to account for this timing issue. Initial data showed that of the 634 people on board who tested positive for the coronavirus, slightly more than half were asymptomatic at the time. But researchers were able to follow up with these people (after many did eventually get sick) and, based on that data, estimated that the actual rate of asymptomatic infections was about 18 percent.
And 18 percent is still a large number, especially when expanded to a broader population during an outbreak. That’s roughly one in five people. And based on the WHO numbers, it is one in four.
Researchers still don’t know if — and how much — these truly asymptomatic carriers might be contributing to the spread of the virus. But with such large numbers, answering that question (and taking precautionary actions in the meantime) will be essential to understanding how to most effectively slow down this pandemic.
Identifying silent spreaders is essential
Given that roughly three-quarters of people who don’t show symptoms at the time of testing will probably get ill (and that those people are perhaps most infectious just before they start feeling sick) and given that we still don’t know how much asymptomatic individuals are infecting others, limiting the spread of the virus by seemingly healthy people is crucial.
That is one of the reasons large-scale testing is so powerful. For example, in the Iceland study, public health officials were able to identify about 525 people — in a country of just 364,000 — who were carrying the virus but appeared healthy otherwise (that would be the equivalent of finding about 473,000 asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers in a small sampling in the US, population-wise).
This information allowed Icelandic officials to take action. After positive test results, people were required to self-isolate until they tested negative — “and all contacts of these participants were [also] required to self-quarantine for 2 weeks,” the authors noted. This sort of broad testing and targeted isolation strategy could help curb the spread of the virus and allow more people to continue with less severe social distancing restrictions.
We’ll need more widespread antibody testing to better understand what’s going on
The trouble with so many of these numbers is that they are snapshots in time. And detailed follow-up, like what happened in the Diamond Princess study, is resource-intensive.
This is one of the reasons testing for the presence of the coronavirus is not — and cannot — give us a clear picture of its true prevalence. Just as it might catch someone before the onset of their symptoms, it might miss someone who has already fought the virus off, whether they knew it or not.
That’s why more widespread antibody testing to see if someone has had the virus in the past will be key in determining the actual proportion of the population that has had the virus. (Most current testing is a different method that looks for the presence of the virus during an active infection.)
With that number, experts will also be able to start modeling how many asymptomatic people are contributing to the overall spread of the virus. This will be “critically important” for ascertaining if they “may be sustaining viral transmission,” del Rio said.
(But this will need to be done thoughtfully. There has been substantial debate over, for example, a recent estimate, based on antibody testing, that the prevalence of the virus in Santa Clara County, California, might be 50-85 times higher than the number of rapid test-confirmed cases.)
Better understanding the true number of asymptomatic carriers and their potential to infect others could impact everything from public health guidelines to how soon we can begin to safely resume more normal activities.
The National Institutes of Health is launching a large-scale study to look at this now. It is enrolling up to 10,000 volunteers from anywhere in the US to be tested for antibodies to the coronavirus.
“These crucial data will help us measure the impact of our public health efforts now and guide our Covid-19 response moving forward,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement. You can learn more about enrolling here.
In the meantime, all of these mounting data support continued social distancing practices, mask-wearing, and other preventative measures for everyone — no matter how healthy they feel.
234/5000
In Mexico, one of the countries with the most cases, the markets continue to be one of the places with the largest influx of people and it is not easy to achieve physical distance from each other. Photography: EL UNIVERSAL Agency / Juan Boites / RDB.
The lifting of measures is starting to be seen in different countries, but not always with the best results.
In Mexico, one of the countries with the most cases in Latin America, the markets continue to be one of the places with the largest influx of people and it is not easy to achieve physical distance from each other. Photography: EL UNIVERSAL Agency / Juan Boites / RDB.
Singapore lifted its quarantine and opened borders. This Wednesday, Singapore health authorities reported that only this Tuesday there have been more infected than in all February and March, the vast majority coming from abroad.
In Wuhan, China, after lifting the measures, saw more cases emerge.
Therefore, trying to return to normal without causing new infections is a difficult balance to achieve.
“We have science and evidence in one hand; in the other, reality and what happens in practice, the consequences that are experienced in the daily lives of the population. There is no way to have zero risk, but we must learn to balance that risk so that it is as low as possible, ” said the World Health Organization (WHO) top emergencies expert Dr. Mike Ryan.
On opening up global travel too quickly, Ryan warned it would require “careful risk management”.
Costa Rica is studying how to achieve that balance to avoid abrupt resurgences.
At the Wednesday coronavirus briefing, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, indicated that it is something that he and a group of specialists analyze every day.
“We are walking through an eggshell floor, very fragile, because the majority of the population, due to the short time of the presence of the virus in Costa Rica, has not been exposed. So we may have an increase in cases because the majority have not been infected and there may be new transmission chains. That is why we must continue to comply with the measures, even if it becomes a tedious matter, and make ourselves aware that there is still a long way to go and that we must get used to a dynamic of social functioning and adequacy, where we all must enter to play in that dynamic,” he said.
This is one of the WHO’s biggest concerns.
Military personnel walk among cubicles being prepared as part of a medical station at the New York Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, during the coronavirus pandemic, on April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
“Some countries that had experienced casualties are re-registering spikes in cases. We cannot be mistaken: This virus will be with us for a long time,” emphasized Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics and some that were affected early in the pandemic are starting to see a resurgence in cases,” Tedros told Geneva journalists in a virtual briefing.
María Van Kerkhove, technical leader of that organism in matters of covid-19 complemented: “if we are seeing the resurgence of cases it is because there is still a lot of population susceptible to becoming ill”.
Six rules for a new normal
“Getting out of quarantine does not imply that we can live as before, it will be a new normal.” That phrase is constantly repeated by health authorities, epidemiologists and scientists, but it is not so easy to make people see it.
1. The transmission of the virus must be controlled. Community transmission should not be at active levels, and if you have case clusters, these should be in isolation, to ensure that they do not have the possibility of transmitting it outside your home.
2. The health system and public health authorities must have capabilities to identify, isolate, test, trace contacts, and quarantine them. “To be clear, the WHO recommendation is to find and test each of the suspected individuals, not everyone in the population,” emphasized Ghebreyesus.
3. That the risks of outbreaks are minimized in highly vulnerable sites. These include nursing homes, mental hospitals, and mental health clinics and the most populous places of residence.
4. That preventive measures be established in all work sites. Physical distance, not only between desks or workstations but also in the way in which co-workers coexist and interact. Workplaces should also have hand washing facilities and hygiene protocols.
5. That the risks of importing cases can be managed. This relates to travel, not only between countries but also between cities in the same country. As long as this cannot be guaranteed, it is not recommended to soften the measures.
6. That communities have a voice and be taken into account in the transition. Populations must be empowered, know the information, have a voice, and be heard. This does not mean that everything that the population indicates will be done, since each decision must be based on science, but it must be guaranteed that the people know the information and their voice can be heard.
Returning to this new normal will include an emphasis on three things:
TESTING, both for COVID-19 and, especially, antibody tests to assess immunity
TRACING of contacts of those who are COVID-19-positive, followed by quarantine of those contacts, and
TREATMENTS for COVID-19 while we await vaccine development. These treatments include both drugs and plasma treatments from recovered patients.
In addition, it is likely that in public settings, temperature-testing will occur (upon entering a restaurant, or other activities), a mask will be required, and some degree of physical distancing implemented.
We will probably continue to wash our hands a lot and be aware of keeping surfaces in our personal space disinfected.
The numbers guide decisions. The most important number is how many people have been infected with COVID-19 and have recovered or continue to be infected.
There is little doubt that the coming months will be challenging. We will need as much resilience as possible and continue to be aware of the world around.
At least 400 people were laid off by the Intercontinental Hotel, located in Escazú, across from the Multiplaza shopping center, as a result of the crisis experienced by the global pandemic due to COVID-19.
The Q was able to obtain a copy of the letter given to employees this past Friday, April 17, which reads:
“As you are aware, the spread of the COVID-19 disease has generated major economic damages both nationally and globally, which have a direct impact on labor relations. By virtue of the foregoing, and as a consequence of the national emergency declaration, the company has suffered a drastic reduction in its income, which makes it unsustainable to keep all personnel under the same conditions.
“Therefore we hereby inform you that we have decided to dispense with your services with employer responsibility in accordance with the provisions of article # 85 subsection d) of the Labor Code, starting today April 17 of this year.”
The hotel, owned by Grupo Roble of El Salvador, indicated in the letter that in order to receive their severance payment the now former employee must return their uniform, badge and identification card, Micros card (restaurant waiters and captains) and provide a photocopy of the cedula.
The severance payment is scheduled for April 30, 2020, according to the document.
The hotel has retained some 30 employees in key areas of administration and maintenance.
The employees, who had been sent home last month, without pay, were called in on Friday to be given their notice.
The hotel general manager, Ricardo Menéndez Méndez, nor Human Resources manager Mónica Jiménez Ramírez, replied to calls or emails for more details of the massive lay off.
In Costa Rica, in addition to the Intercontinental Hotel, Grupo Roble real estate holdings includes the Roble Corporate Center, Multiplaza Escazu, Centro Corporativo Plaza Roble, and Escazú Corporate Center.
Grupo Roble
Grupo Roble is a division of the Grupo Poma, a family-owned company in El Salvador, founded in 1919, and currently headed by Ricardo Poma. Some of Grupo Poma’s business activities include automobile dealerships, real estate development and construction, industrial manufacturing and hotels, as well as investments in telecommunications and a variety of nonprofit organizations that carry out social projects.
The Grupo Roble division is a construction subsidiary that builds and manages shopping centers, residential housing and office space. Some of this division’s accomplishments include building more than 50,000 homes and 19 shopping malls in Central America.
Real Hotels and Resorts – The group has nineteen InterContinental, Marriott International and Choice Hotels in Central America, Colombia, the Caribbean and Miami, Florida, United States.
Grupo Autofacil – Operates in El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama. Grupo Autofacil is the financial division of Grupo Poma. Most focused to give financial solutions for people who wants to buy a car but they also offer other related products.
Grupo Solaire – The group has companies creating architectural solutions for the construction industry: insulated roofing systems, window hardware and aluminum and glass products. Grupo Solaire manufactures windows and aluminum products at four factories in El Salvador.
Excel Automotriz – Operates in El Salvador since 1919 and also in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Grupo Poma represents some of the leading companies in the automotive market, such as Toyota, BMW, Mitsubishi, Chevrolet, Ford and KIA. Excel Automotriz is the biggest automotive distribution company in Central America.
The minister added that the ICT public relations and advertising teams have developed strategic actions to maintain a connection with our stakeholders in the main source markets, this includes sharing audiovisual brushstrokes of landscapes, gastronomy, well-being and activities to do with the family during the quarantine.
The Times published in its latest edition the positive story of the British family who vacationed in Costa Rica and had to live part of their quarantine in what they describe as paradise.
Juan Luis Bermúdez, Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion and Executive President of IMAS explained at the mid-day press briefing that special attention must be paid to seniors, that account for almost one million people.
“Outdoors is safe, and there is certainly no cloud of virus-laden droplets hanging around,” said the professor.
