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Published Monday, December 14, 2020
Covid-19 outbreak saturates
two rural hospitals
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
At the Escalante-Pradilla hospital, located in Pérez Zeledón Canton, south of San José Province, there has been a fast increase of covid-19 patients, due to an outbreak that has been detected in the area.
The rise of covid-19 patients caused an increase in infected hospital workers, Social Security said in its statement.
"We continue to carry out a permanent evaluation of the epidemiological measures for safety, prevention and infection control in the hospital to protect patients and health workers so that they can feel in a safe place," Guiselle Guzmán-Saborío, an epidemiologist at the Social Security said.
Due to the virus outbreak, the hospital is treating only covid-19 patients. The rest of the patients in the area, who are not infected with covid-19, are being treated in public clinics in San Vito, Golfito, Ciudad Neily, Tomás Casas, downtown Puntarenas and Quepos.
Also, this week a Mobile Medical Unit will be installed in the external area of the hospital, for the care of people suspected of having been infected with the virus, and thus reduce the risk of increasing the infection inside the hospital. The unit has three modules with a capacity for 20 beds and basic medical equipment such as monitors, defibrillators, electrocardiographs among other devices, authorities said.
On Dec. 12, the authorities had to transfer 11 covid-19 patients from the Pérez Zeledón hospital to public hospitals in San José and Cartago, due to reaching the capacity of the medical care units for these patients.
That hospital can attend 15 covid-19 patients, but reached 39 infected patients, more than double its maximum capacity, Social Security said.
This is the second hospital overloaded by covid-19 patients this month.
Last week, health authorities reported that at the Enrique-Baltodano Hospital, located in Liberia Canton, Guanacaste Province, 12 patients also had to be transferred to public hospitals located in San José Province.
In this hospital, there is the capacity to care for 22 covid-19 patients in the recovery room plus 14 in the intensive care unit. However, due to the increase in new covid-19 cases in the region, there was a higher demand for hospitalization services, Warner Picado-Camareno, director of the Hospital said. Therefore, 12 patients had to be transferred. Of these, 11 were hospitalized at the Rafael Angel Calderón Hospital and one at the Mexico Hospital.
According to the Ministry of Health, the country is facing a rapid advance of the virus in the country. The most recent statistics reported on Friday are as follows:
• 1,132 new covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 36,430 active cases.
• 20,677 foreign-born people have been infected, totaling 150,947 cases since March, approximately 13.7% 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.
• 600 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 232 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions (ages range from 1 to 92-years-old). And 368 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 126,622 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, which is a 74.6% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 431,232 covid-19 tests have been performed in Costa Rica since March, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering of Johns Hopkins University.
• 1,895 deaths of people infected with covid-19, approximately 1.3% death rate of the total cases since March. Of these 714 women and 1,181 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 1,612,014 people worldwide.
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What should the authorities implement in order to avoid the increase in covid-19 cases? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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