Published Wednesday, April 15, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Last week, from Monday 6 to Sunday 12, coast guards had to remove 141 people from the beaches. People continue breaking orders prohibiting entry to coastal areas, meanwhile authorities confirm more than 600 covid-19 infected patients in the country.

According to Monday's report of the National Coast Guard Service, during that week 133 people breaking the new law were ordered to return to their homes.

Police had to evict 8 more people who were already camping on the beaches. They were also given the order to return to their homes, plus a formal claim before the Public Ministry, for the crime of breaking the sanitary order issued by the Ministry of Health banning all entries to any beach.

Most of the beaches that were visited during the restriction are located in the Guanacaste and Limón Provinces, police said.

For example, in Mina Beach in the Santa Cruz district of Guanacaste Province there were six people camping, police reported.

"Those people were caught by officers from the Flamingo Beach Coast Guard station when they were patrolling on an interceptor boat," police said in its report.

Another place, where more people have been detained, was Coyote Beach in Nandayure Canton, also in Guanacaste Province. In that place, people were found vacationing on the beach as well as sailing in the rivers.

In Coyote Beach, since the start of the beach ban, coastguards have evicted 14 people. Among  them were Costa Ricans and foreign tourists. They were charged for non-compliance with the measure of not visiting rivers and beaches, added the police.

People's continued disrespect for isolation orders and disregard for holding gatherings in houses and public places, led Health Minister Daniel Salas to call on people to be more responsible.

"The responsibility to take care of ourselves belongs to everyone: government, companies and citizens," said Salas on Monday.

The government has imposed severe measures to restrict the use of public places and the preventive closure of companies and public institutions to prevent the spreading of covid-19 throughout the country.

According to the authorities, the only reasons to leave one’s home are for grocery shopping, an emergency, or when working.

Stricter sanitary measures are being applied to open essential businesses.

The Ministry of Health called on employers and workers to follow the guidelines of hygiene and social distance, to avoid becoming infected with the virus.

The ministry notes as most important is for people to have a social distance of at least 1.8 meters between each other. They also emphasize the importance of keeping cleaning supplies such as alcohol and disposable towels in the work area, constantly disinfecting surfaces, enforce special hours for elderly clients and enabling telecommuting or home working systems for employees.

"We are fully aware that a high percentage of the population must go out to work or do some urgent duty and that is where the responsibility of institutions and companies becomes essential to protect these people, implementing the sanitary guidelines previously given, " Salas said. "As customers, we require these conditions and the government's commitment is to be impeccable with those companies where breaches are evident.”

According to Salas, there are simple measures to prevent the possibility of infection, which all people must practice.

“If you have to leave home, protect yourself: respect the social distance between people, wash your hands as often as possible and try not to touch your face if you haven't washed your hands. Those are the most important measures for your protection,” Salas said.


On Tuesday afternoon the ministry confirmed an increase of 6 new patients infected with the virus, taking the total to 618 cases in the country.

Of the infected patients, 19 are being treated in public hospitals, where 13 of them have been reported in intensive care with delicate health conditions.

The patients' ages range from 1 to 87 with an average age of 38. Of those, 25 are children under the age of 13, 562 are between 18 and 70 years old, and 31 are elder patients over the age of 70.

Of those infected, 298 are women (48%) and 320 are men (52%). It was reported 43 foreigners are infected. Authorities stopped informing about the specific nationality of those patients.

It is reported that 66 coronavirus patients have fully recovered. According to the Inciensa Laboratory, in charge of managing the medical test to confirm or rule out the virus. They collect samples to declare patients recovered or not. "Sometimes it takes up to four covid-19 tests per person to declare a patient as fully recovered," stated the Lab in its statement. A person is declared fully recovered until two covid-19 medical tests resulted in negative.

It is reported three patients died. The latest death reported this month was a 45-year-old Costa Rican who entered the country from the U.S. in March, where it is presumed that he was infected. He was hospitalized for 10 days in the intensive care unit of the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San José.

The two other patients died in March. They were hospitalized in intensive care at San Rafael Hospital in Alajuela Province, both 87-years-old.

Since the virus was first reported in the country on March 6, 326 people have been ruled out.


For a daily updated number of patients infected in each district throughout the country, visit the Covid-19 map of the UNED University.

As of today 1,973,915 people have been confirmed infected worldwide. The pandemic has killed 125,910 patients and 471,261 patients made a full recovery, according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.


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Should the government order severe preventive measures to force people to stay inside their homes?    We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com