QCOSTARICA – As of Wednesday, August 17, 2022, the State of Emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic was officially lifted, after the decree signed by the government was published in the official government newsletter, La Gaceta.
The declaration of an emergency due to the coronavirus allowed exceptional measures to contain the contagion, such as the closure of establishments and the restriction of circulation of vehicles, among others.
Read more: Costa Rica government puts end to ‘State of Emergency’ due to covid-19
Epidemiologist, Ana Morice, affirms that the technical criteria that support the decision to end the State of Emergency that governed the country are still pending.
The former Minister of Health, María Luisa Ávila, agreed that epidemiological data is needed and assured that there is a risk with the message that this survey gives.
According to the National Emergency Commission (CNE), the decision is based on a technical recommendation and will allow Covid-19 care to be carried out through ordinary channels.
“We can dedicate ourselves to the post-pandemic, reactivate the economy and normalize our country (…) The declaration was made as a result of the state of necessity and an urgency caused by the pandemic, but fortunately, the emergency system managed to support Costa Ricans during the peaks,” Costa Rica President Rodrigo Chaves said last week.
Chaves added that this decision does not mean that the country will stop giving preventive treatments against the disease, but rather that what is sought is that “we can also respect the freedom of each citizen regarding the obligations to be vaccinated or not.”
The decree establishing a state of National Emergency throughout the Costa Rican territory, to the health emergency situation caused by the pandemic was signed on March 16, 2020.
It is important to note that while there is no longer a State of Emergency, the pandemic continues.
Since May 30, with the fall of the Edus system of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), due to the hack, the country does not report its updated figures of COVID-19 cases per day, nor of recovered cases, people hospitalized, or in intensive care, nor the detail of the number of tests carried out nor the percentage of positivity for this pandemic disease.
