Covid-19: Cases in Costa Rica rose 16.7% in one week; deaths remain stable

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Cases of Covid-19 increased by 16.7% in Costa Rica last week. Hence, the authorities insisted this Tuesday to the population to continue to apply preventive protocols strictly and not to trust despite the progress of vaccination, which already covers more than half of the population.

The weekly report published on Tuesday indicates that 10,151 cases of covid-19 were recorded in the week from August 1 to 7, 16.7% more than the 8,449 recorded in the previous week. Deaths remained at a similar number, as from August 1 to 7 there were 93, and in the previous week 94.

Through Tuesday, Costa Rica, a country of 5.1 million inhabitants, accumulated 420,462 cases of covid-19 and 5,169 deaths.

This Tuesday, there are 876 people hospitalized, of which 371 are in intensive care units, a section that remains above what authorities call the “optimal capacity,” which is 369 beds.

“It is essential that we all maintain compliance with basic sanitary measures such as the correct use of masks, hand washing, and distancing,” declared the general director of Health, Priscilla Herrera.

VACCINATION PROGRESSES

Official vaccination data indicate that, as of August 9, 3,643,509 doses have been administered in the country, of which 2,780,658 correspond to the first doses, and 862,851 people have already received both doses.

Overall, 53.9% of the country’s total population has received at least one dose of the covid-19 vaccine.

In the population over 58 years of age, the percentage of first doses reached 91% and that of second doses 88%, while in the segment of people between 40 and 57 years of age, 74% have received the first dose and 6% have already received the second dose.

For people between 20 and 39 years of age, the percentage of first doses is 56 % and 4 % for second doses, and for young people between 12 and 19 years of age, the percentage of first doses is 39 % and 0.6 % for second doses.

Since July, Costa Rica has accelerated the vaccination process due to the arrival of larger batches from Pfizer and a donation of 503,000 doses from the United States.

The acceleration is greater in first doses since the country established a 12-week period for the second dose, except for those over 58 years of age and pregnant women, where the space between injections is 21 days.

So far, 4,361,985 doses of vaccine have arrived in Costa Rica, of which 3,114,735 correspond to the purchase contract with Pfizer/BioNTech, 571,200 doses to the contract with AstraZeneca, 172,950 through the multilateral mechanism Covax and 503,100 from the United States donation.