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Published Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Campaign collecting plasma donations
of covid-19 recovered patients begins
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Social Security authorities call on citizens who have recovered from covid-19 to donate their plasma at donation posts located in the districts of Pital and Aguas Zarcas, in San Carlos Canton, north of the country.
Social Security is expecting to receive between 120 and 140 donors. During the weekend, the plasma collection centers were open from 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Agricultural companies in the area have desginated areas for donor care, as well as the donation of small aircraft services to transport the units of blood collected during the weekend to San José, according to Social Security.
People interested in donating plasma can obtain information about the centers in the Social Security public clinics located in Pital and Aguas Zarcas.
The donation of one recovered covid-19 patient helps save up to four lives, each collected unit of blood is divided into four components: red blood cells, platelets, fibrinogen concentrates and plasma, Social Security said.
Plasma collected from recovered patients is used to produce two types of covid-19 treatments.
The first type is produced by the scientists of the Clodomiro Picado Research Institute of the UCR. This treatment is capable of restraining the covid-19, specialists from George Mason University, in Virginia, U.S.A. confirmed in July.
The second type of treatment is developed by Social Security, based on antibodies from recovered virus patients transferred to an infected person in severe or critical health. Results show it will help them overcome the illness, Social Security said.
Production of treatments against covid-19 based on plasma continue, as well as a spike in covid-19 infections in the country. On Monday, the Ministry of Health provided the most up-to-date statistics:
• 576 new covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 41,741 active cases.
• 20,291 foreign-born people have been infected with a total of 146,421 cases since March, approximately 13.8% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients. But since October, there is no updated information about foreign-born deaths due to covid-19.
• 608 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 225 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions (ages range from 1 to 92-years-old). And 383 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 102,855 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, which is a 70.2% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 404,440 medical covid-19 tests have been performed in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University.
• 1,825 deaths of people infected with covid-19, approximately 1.2% death rate of the total cases since March. Of these 686 women and 1,136 men. The ages range from a 9-year-old to a 101-year-old person.
Readers can see the updated number of total
patients in each district at the National
Distance Education University on its Covid-19 Map.
According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering, CSSE, at Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic has killed 1,553,714 people worldwide.
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Should health authorities extend the plasma donation campaign to the whole country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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