Ombudsman’s Office asks to suspend classes due to the increase of Covid cases in Costa Rica

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Costa Rican Ombudsman’s Office asked the Government this Wednesday to suspend the school year to guarantee the right to health of children and adolescents the increase in cases of covid-19 that has been registered since April.

The Ombudsman’s Office asked the President of the country, Carlos Alvarado, the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, and the Minister of Education, Guiselle Cruz, to decree an immediate suspension of the school year to protect students, as well as teachers and administrative staff.

The Ombudsman, Catalina Crespo, indicated that the saturation of different emergency units in different hospitals and the intensive care units, among them the one in the Children’s Hospital, support this petition.

“There are technical arguments to request the immediate suspension of the school year because our country is currently experiencing an accelerated increase of cases; greater than anything that occurred in 2020”, states the Ombudsman’s Office in a press release.

Since last February, the Ministry of Education has maintained the school year under a combined face-to-face and virtual modality. According to the authorities, the classes are essential for developing social and coexistence skills of the students.

Union groups in the country have also expressed concern about the face-to-face classes in the midst of the pandemic and the increase in cases, especially because there is no priority in vaccinating all teaching staff.

In the first three months of the year, Costa Rica was in a plateau of around 400 cases per day, but after the Easter vacations, in which no restrictive measures were applied, a new wave of infections has been unleashed, with an average of 1,578 infections per day in the last 20 days.

According to the latest data, the country has 257,593 confirmed cases of covid-19, 3,310 deaths, and 206,319 patients recovered during the pandemic.

Health authorities reported that this Wednesday, hospitals have a critical occupancy level and that there are waiting lists of patients requiring more specialized care.

In recent weeks, occupancy in intensive care units has hovered around 95%.

Since May 3 and until May 9, there has been a closure of non-essential activities in the four provinces of the center of the country, including the capital, where the largest number of confirmed cases have been reported.