This Saturday, for the second consecutive day, Costa Rica had more people recovered than of people infected with covid-19: the Ministry of Health reporting nine recovered and six infected.
In addition, the trend of less active cases of the coronavirus continues.
But beyond that data, for the first time, the Ministry of Health released the age ranges of the recovered people. Among them is a two-year-old and an 86-year-old. Five others over 65 also got rid of the virus, for a total of six seniors.
Older adults are precisely a population at risk (especially after 80 years) and therefore could take longer to report their recovery, however, they are already beginning to appear among those free of the virus.
More: 112 Ticos returned from the United States; 2 tested positive for covid-19
These types of recoveries are not foreign to other parts of the world. In Italy they have a 101-year-old man and a 93-year-old woman, and in China they have a 103-year-old, just to give three examples.
María Vanhkerkhove, technical leader of the World Health Organization (WHO) for covid-19 explained in a previous press conference that age is a risk factor for a more serious disease, but a risk factor does not imply “manifest destiny” of how the disease evolves, each person has their weapons to fight the virus and age is only one factor that works against, but others can play in favor, such as a good immune system, good general health, and a healthy lifestyle.
Of the recovered, according to the Ministry of Health information, 51 are men and 46 women, from 33 cantons across all seven provinces.
The canton with the most recovered is Alajuela (where the first clusters of the disease were seen), with 27 people (27.8%). Alajuela has led with the highest number of infected.
Escazú has six recoveries and San José has 5.
In addition, 9 cantons are reported that at this time do not have any active cases: the list is headed by Pérez Zeledón (San José), Santa Bárbara (Heredia), Santa Cruz (Guanacaste), Tilarán (Guanacaste), Montes de Oro (Puntarenas), Jiménez (Cartago), Liberia (Guanacaste), San Isidro (Heredia), and the central canton of Limón complete this list.
However, the authorities remain vigilant, as this does not mean that no more cases will appear in the future.
To the daily briefing…
With six new cases reported for this Saturday, April 18, the number of people infected with covid-19 in Costa Rica increased from 649 to 655.
According to the report provided by the Health Minister, Daniel Salas, among those affected are 314 women, 341 men, in 59 of the 82 cantons across the country, 33 of those reporting recoveries.
By nationality, 600 of the confirmed cases are Costa Rican and the other 55 are foreigners. Regarding age, there are 625 adults (of which 31 are seniors) and 30 minors.
Currently, 16 patients are hospitalized and of these, 10 remain in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). They are between 44 and 75 years old.
Finally, the number of people killed by the new coronavirus remains at four.
Testing…
Currently, there are 15,800 tests between the Ministry of Health, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and Inciensa.
Health Minister Salas revealed that the 25,000 tests donated by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to Costa Rica, arrived incomplete.
“When reviewing (the kits), they were incomplete, they cannot be used until they are completed and we are already in contact to see how to solve that matter, to obtain the component that is required. There are practically none worldwide because all the countries have wanted to stock up on evidence,” said Salas.
According to the Minister, the tests lack viral extraction equipment. These arrived in the country on April 7 in a Honduras Air Force plane, that donated the flight.
Honduras, who also received the CABEI donation, has also complained of receiving incomplete kits.
