The Government has decided to take additional measures due to the exponential growth of covid-19 in the Central Valley. From the 3-9 of May, all non-essential businesses in the Central Valley will be closed. Additionally, the sanitary vehicle restriction has been extended to May 31.
This applies to a total of 45 cantons in San José, Cartago, Alajuela, and Heredia. These are where 68% of the cases registered in April were.
Department stores, barber shops, salons, churches, and gyms will be closed. Schools will remain open. Public and private health establishments, pharmacies, banks, and supermarkets are to remain open.
In the last 24 hours, 2,781 new cases were discovered and 15 more people lost their lives to the virus. It is expected that in six days, we could reach 4,000 daily cases. The figures we are seeing are much higher than in any other month since the pandemic started. Between April 21 and 27, there were 11,200 more cases and 82 more deaths. On Wednesday, 963 patients were admitted to a CCSS hospital, including 348 to Intensive Care.
Public hospitals are saturated. By Thursday, 94% of ICU beds were already taken. Some ideas on the table include the CCSS paying private hospitals to take non-covid patients and thus free up space for more covid patients in public hospitals and/or making use of additional field hospitals, like the one at the San Juan de Dios Hospital.
