March 29, 2024

News Collective

Complete New Zealand News World

Radio Havana Cuba | The pandemic wave caused by the Omicron variant will affect health services in Costa Rica

Photo: archive.

SAN JOSE, Jan. 8 (RHC) The CEO of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, Roman Macaya, warned this Saturday of a saturation of health services due to the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases due to the SARS Ómicron variant – the COV-2 coronavirus.

At a press conference, Macaya warned that the current epidemiological context in Costa Rica, with the predominance of Ómicron, leads to an unprecedented situation throughout the epidemic period, which began here in March 2020.

He revealed that, according to an analysis by the technical teams of the CCSS – responsible for public health in Costa Rica -, the current level of infections could exceed five thousand daily cases as of next week, which will lead to a doubling. The highest levels of the entire health crisis.

Although he said the vast majority of new confirmed cases would be mild, the CEO said it would generate an increase in cases requiring hospitalization in both room and intensive care, a condition that could saturate hospital services in the coming weeks.

At this time, he explained, CCSS has a COVID-19 intensive care unit bed capacity of 271 patients (85 critical cases and 186 severe cases), with little margin for growth, as the others are allocated to people with other illnesses, while it has 496 in the chamber, with a maximum expansion of 986.

He explained that in the past 11 days, the coronavirus reproduction rate has decreased from less than one to 2.6, and this is the reason for the daily increase in the number of infected people.

See also  "They are not part of a terrorist organization."

After recalling that the CCSS has begun restoring care to patients with other illnesses, Macaya noted that they should cover all citizens who need health services with the same resources.

He stressed that the institutional efforts and commitments of health workers are insufficient without the responsible participation of the population in the prevention of infection, which remains the most important measure.

He said that people have the vaccine, but this is not enough, and that is why hand washing, the use of masks and social distancing must be maintained.

From about 450 new daily cases of COVID-19 the previous week, Costa Rica moved this Friday to 3,153 new positive cases, up from 1,500 on Tuesday, 2,542 on Wednesday and 2,881 on Thursday. latin press).