The small and peaceful Central American nation emerges as the best in the region in terms of health, with an outstanding universal public health system and a population that, for the most part, has complied with the sanitary measures issued by the Government.
By April 24th, 2020. Costa Rica had accumulated seven days of sustained reduction in active cases, and the lowest mortality derived from the epidemic outbreak on the continent. While in other countries of America they face the worst stage of the coronavirus epidemic.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Health had reported by April 24th, 2020 total of 687 cases of coronavirus, 50 days after confirming the first patient, an American tourist. It is the accumulated after seven days in which the new patients have been less than the recovered ones.
The sum of new cases in the last seven days from April 24th 2020 were 40 and 107 recovered. This allowed the active cases to decrease from 564 to 494 in the country of 5 million inhabitants. Meanwhile, America is about to take the place of Europe as the new focus of the epidemic, after surpassing the million infected.
This small yet innovative country is also currently developing their own Covid-19 screening tests as well as their own effective Covid-19 treatments.
“The first Central American country to register a coronavirus infection on March 6, Costa Rica has gone three days without reporting a related fatality. Thursday (April 24th) was the seventh consecutive day that the number of active cases decreased.”
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.
The Costa Rican health authorities report presents six deaths associated with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Only 11 coronavirus patients were registered in hospitals in the country. Of these, only two were in the hospital specially equipped to care for patients with this virus, which made 86 beds available.
Although there are no conclusive explanations, experts attribute the good results, so far, to the broad and public health system, 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 social distancing. Although quarantine is voluntary, not mandatory.
Studies of Google reports, 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 focused on a relentless fight to get mechanical ventilators to help critically ill patients breathe with COVID-19, the Central American country has some 400 units and recently acquired some 300 more.
Costa Rica keeps the entry of foreigners to its territory closed (until May 15), and has reinforced police surveillance at the borders, where thousands of Nicaraguans, the largest foreign population in the small country, entered irregularly.
In addition, all mass events through September and the school year are prohibited indefinitely. Restaurants work at medium capacity and bars are closed.
Water cuts, necessary to constantly wash your hands and prevent infection, were also prohibited. In the absence of a curfew endorsed by the Constitution, vehicle traffic was restricted and fines for violators were increased.
The Ministry of Health affirms that it applies the necessary diagnostic tests, according to the suspected cases they capture.
The official figure by April 24, 2020 was of 11,776 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 accumulates about 6,000 cases of coronavirus and about 170 deaths, with a population close to 4.2 million inhabitants, one million less than Costa Rica.
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