|
| 
Published
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
UN donates refugee housing
units to help during pandemic
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, donated 10 refugee housing units, RHU, to help the public health services attending the immediate emergency due to covid-19, Social Security announced on Tuesday.
"From the UNHCR we are committed to supporting Costa Rica in the face of the health emergency caused by covid-19 and to contribute with our experience in dealing with humanitarian situations around the world," Milton Moreno, UNHCR representative said.
Because the units are easy to assemble and mobilize, it will allow them to be used throughout the country, including remote communities that host refugees, refugee applicants and other vulnerable groups, Moreno said.
These RHUs allow the safeguarding of supplies and equipment necessary for the provision of health services, in addition to being easy to move and install.
According to Mario Vilchez-Madrigal, from the Center for Attention to Emergencies and Disasters, housing units are adaptable for the storage of supplies and equipment in a protected place.
Each unit features 17 square meters of space, partition walls, a solar-powered LED lamp that provides more than six hours of light, and sockets for charging electronic devices, plus they can be assembled together to create larger structures for other applications.
The units were designed by UNHCR, Better Shelter company and the IKEA Foundation, as sustainable shelters for displaced people around the world.
In October Social Security announced a $1.8 million-plus agreement with UNHCR to provide medical attention to foreign-born people in Costa Rica.
This agreement is one of the strategies of Social Security to attend 6,000 foreigners per year, independently of the legal status of the person in the country.
During the national emergency due to covid-19, declared on March 6, more than 17,000 foreign-born people have been confirmed infected by the virus, according to the Ministry of Health.
From March 6 to Sept. 30, medical attention has been given to 410,003 people with or affected by covid-19. Of these, 14% were not born in the country and were treated in Social Security clinics, emergency rooms and hospitals.
When it comes to medical consultations, one of every three people consulted were foreign-born. Of these, 80% were diagnosed positive for covid-19.
In the case of medical attention in the emergency room, one out of every two people are foreign-born. Of these, 66% tested positive for covid-19.
With regard to hospitals, in the first seven months of the health emergency, 966 foreign-born people have been hospitalized, equivalent to 15% of the total of patients hospitalized. Of the total number of foreign-born people attended in hospitals, 30% required intensive care unit hospitalization.
Other strategies for continuing to provide medical attention to foreigners were detailed in the A.M. Costa Rica article, “U.N. pays $1.8 million-plus for medical attention to foreigners in Costa Rica” published on Oct 23.
According to Social Security, free care to foreigners will continue, regardless of their immigration status or health insurance status.
Meanwhile, the contagion of covid-19 continues to quickly spread all over the country. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health reported the following updated statistics of the covid-19 contagion in the country:
• 863 new covid-19 cases, bringing the total to 42,097 active cases.
• 17,553 foreign-born people have been infected with a total of 112,120 cases since March, approximately 15.6% of the total cases. Of these, authorities confirmed the death of 32 foreign-born patients.
• 462 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 185 patients are in ICU’s in delicate health conditions (ages range from a 1-year-old to a 93-year-old). And 277 patients are in recovery rooms. Many of the remaining infected patients are quarantined in their homes.
• 68,604 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, which is a 61.2% recovery rate of the total cases since March.
• 1,419 deaths of people infected with covid-19, approximately 1.3% death rate of the total cases since March. Of these 540 women and 879 men. The ages range from a 9-year-old to a 100-year-old person.
In October authorities stopped providing the updated statistics on people who have been ruled out and the number of medical covid-19 tests that have been made.
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 1,213,735 people worldwide.
-------------------------
What have you heard of a foreign-born person in Costa Rica infected with covid-19 needing medical attention? We would like to know
your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
|
