Published Thursday, May 7, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The government is concerned about the statements of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, on May 5 when he queried the practices and standards that Costa Rica does for the application of tests to detect covid-19.

"Costa Rica would give a false impression that they have flattened the curve, but they only have been decreasing the number of medical tests," said Bukele. "If we measure the number of tests that Costa Rica did at the beginning with the number of tests that they are doing now, they are doing even lower numbers than Honduras, even having the ability to do 15 or 20 times more tests than they are doing, obviously Costa Rica is only doing few tests."

According to Bukele, "Costa Rica started doing an excellent number of tests, they say that Costa Rica's capacity is 2,500, however, recently they are doing 130 to 160 tests, and I say, why don't they do 1,500? They will have their reasons for how they are leading their response to the pandemic."

If El Salvador did the same number of daily tests as Costa Rica does, only a few new cases would be recorded, Bukele criticized. "But if we did the same for Costa Rica instead of having 32 cases from yesterday, we would have had 3. And we would think that we have already gone down the curve and we are fine, there are more cures than new cases, of course, if we are doing fewer tests."

Responding to Bukele's statements, Daniel Salas, Minister of Health, said on Wednesday that the methodology used by Costa Rica is recognized by the international community and by specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as the World Health Organization, WHO, and the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO.

"Costa Rica will unwaveringly maintain its historical vocation to promote two high pillars: democratic institutions and absolute respect for human rights," said minister Salas.

According to Salas, these two pillars support what the country has built over decades, the Social Security which allows Costa Rica to enjoy among other great achievements, a first-level health system.

The covid-19 pandemic does not distinguish borders, nationalities, or social or economic conditions, said the ministry in its statement. "For this reason, Costa Rica will continue to face the current health threat, improving scientific and technical knowledge, building on the universal principles and values that characterize it, and decisively contributing to international solidarity."

The ministry announces that access to the best practices in public health in Costa Rica are available to all people.

According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, on Wednesday, El Salvador reported 633 cases of patients infected with the covid-19, of these 399 are active patients and 15 were reported dead. The country reports have applied 33,628 medical tests.

The smallest Central American country registers a population of 6,704,121 inhabitants, while Costa Rica has a population of over 5 million inhabitants, according to statistics provided by The World Factbook. El Salvador has a 34% larger population. They might have a denser population but “el pulgarcito” as it’s commonly referred to by its people is 41% the size of Costa Rica.


According to the statistics provided by the ministry of Health on Wednesday, there are 327 active patients infected with covid-19 in Costa Rica. Active patients are people who currently have the virus.

Authorities provided the following statistics related to the development of the covid-19 in the country.

• There was an overnight increase of 6 new patients infected with the covid-19.

• The ages of those affected range from 1 to 87 with an average age of 37.

• 18 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 13 are in recovery rooms and 5 have been reported in an Intensive Care Unit with delicate health conditions. Most of the infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

• 91 foreigners infected, of these 14 entered the country unauthorized and are jailed in the facilities of the  Professional Migration Police in Heredia Province.

• So far, six deaths have been reported from patients infected with covid-19.

• Of the 761 infected since the first case was detected in March, 428 coronavirus patients have fully recovered.

• 9,412 people have been ruled out.

• 14,121 medical covid-19 tests have been made.




The UNED University provides a daily updated number of total patients, active and recovered, in each district throughout the country on its Covid-19 Map.

As of Wednesday night, the pandemic has killed 263,146 patients worldwide according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.







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Should El Salvador's president apologize to Costa Rican health authorities for making  false statements?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com