Published Friday, May 1, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Professors from the Technology University of Costa Rica, TEC, are working on the design and construction of stretchers that will be donated to the Red Cross.

A stretcher is an apparatus used for moving patients who require medical care.

Specialists and professors from the School of Science and Engineering are developing a stretcher that, in addition to being easily disarmed, has a protective barrier to minimize the risk of exposure among paramedics who travel in ambulances and patients infected with covid-19.

"We determine that the Red Cross needs a device that is easy to install, clean and disinfects," said Álvaro Montero, Deputy Manager of Operations for the Costa Rican Red Cross. "Furthermore, once used, it can be disarmed and stored inside the ambulance, for future use."

According to Montero, the stretcher mobile device must be of low-production cost since the idea is to have at least one of these stretchers in each canton of the country.


Once the Red Cross authorities approve the stretcher prototype, they will coordinate the production process on a large scale with manufacturing companies. "This idea collaborates with both the Red Cross and economic activation," said the University in its statement.

The TEC team, made up of Teodolito Guillén, Ronald Brenes, Oscar Chaverri, José Luis León, Mario Leiva and Erick Sánchez, have donated the design, work time, materials and production design for the manufacturing of the stretchers.

These special stretchers are increasingly necessary given the increase in cases of covid-19 infected people in the country.


The Ministry of Health confirmed on Thursday an increase of six new patients infected with the covid-19, increasing the total to 719 cases.

Authorities provided the following statistics:

- Ages of those affected range from 1 to 87 with an average age of 37. Of those, 38 are children under the age of 13, 643 are between 18 and 70 years old.

- There are 38 patients over the age of 70.

- 16 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where seven are in recovery and nine have been reported in intensive care with delicate health conditions. The rest of the infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

- Of those infected, 341 are women (47%) and 378 are men (53%).

- 133 patients are employees of Social Security.

- 72 foreigners infected.

- 338 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, of these 165 women and 173 men.

- 8,688 people have been ruled out since the virus was first reported in the country in March.

- Six deaths reported from patients infected with covid-19.

Authorities provided the following summaries:

On April 20, a 54-year-old Cuban man died. He was diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 6. According to the authorities, he was linked to 81 people infected with covid-19.

On April 19, a 69-year-old Costa Rican diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 25 died.

On April 15, an 84-year-old Costa Rican man who had tested positive for covid-19 on April 1 was reported dead.

On April 8, a 45-year-old Costa Rican died after being hospitalized for 10 days in intensive care at the San Juan de Dios Hospital.

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


The UNED University provides a daily updated number of patients infected in each district throughout the country at its  Covid-19 Map.

As of Thursday night, the pandemic has killed 234,702 patients worldwide according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.






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What other type of protective health device could be manufactured in Costa Rica?     We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com