QCOSTARICA – The president of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) – Social Security-, Román Macaya, assured this Wednesday that the country is experiencing its second wave of COVID-19 infections.
“We are already in a second wave, this second wave seems like an elevated plain where we have a high number of patients diagnosed every day,” said the Caja chief.
For Macaya in this phase it is being even more remarkable with the number of people who are requiring to be admitted to an Intensive Care Unit (ICUs).
“In recent weeks we have a trend towards discharge of hospitalized in critical situation (…) within that category of patients who are in ICU there are different levels of severity and complexity, and there are more patients who are the most critical”, mentioned.
The Medical Manager of the Fund, Mario Ruiz, said that this second wave has different characteristics from the first.
“The patients who are getting sick and complicated are those who have more risk factors and above all are patients both in the metropolitan area and in different regions of the country,” he said.
Among those risk factors that are occurring the most are patients with hypertension, diabetes, smoking, asthma, a history of cancer, and those with compromised immune systems.
The demographer of the Central American Population Center (CCP) of the University of Costa Rica (UCR), Luis Rosero Bixby, pointed out last week in an interview with CRHoy.com that the second wave had already begun.
“For 2 weeks we have been seeing an increase in the contagion rate, in the R rate,” he explained.
Both the Centro Centromaericano de Poblacion de la Universidad de Costa Rica (CCP-UCR)and the Unidad de Investigación de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad Hispanoamericana (UH) reported an R rate above 1.
The CCP-UCR on Wednesday indicated a R rate of 1.05 and UH 1.07.
The contagion rate of an epidemic outbreak indicates the average number of people that each infected person infects during the entire time that it is contagious.
An analysis of the situation in the provinces shows a decrease in Cartago, Heredia and Puntarenas, but an increase in Alajuela and Limón, especially in the latter. In addition, the rate remains stable in San José and Guanacaste.
