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Health Minister Daniel Salas on Monday warned of rising coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in Costa Rica, and he reminded Ticos to heed protocols to help slow the spread of Covid-19. During Epidemiological Week 14, which ended Saturday, Costa Rica added 4,987 new cases, representing 82% more than the previous week (2,743). Meanwhile, Covid-19-related hospitalizations have doubled over the last 15 days. As of Friday, April 9, there are 412 people hospitalized with the disease 199 of them in intensive care. “We have an individual and collective responsibility to flatten that curve that is rising dangerously. Vaccination is advancing, but we need to strengthen preventive measures to let this immunization advance and achieve the necessary protection, especially for the most vulnerable,” Salas said. ....
Costa Rica uses the blue blood of horseshoe crabs to test injectable drugs for contaminants. Dr. Mario André Oreamuno Ávila, in charge of the Bioanalysis Unit of the Costa Rica’s Laboratory of Standards and Quality of Medicines (LNCM), explained his lab analyzes 400 batches of injectable drugs each year using this method. Horseshoe crab blood reacts to the presence of bacteria and fungi by visibly coagulating. Analysis of this coagulation allows Oreamuno’s staff to verify the quality and the safety of drugs created or imported into Costa Rica. As the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains: Few people realize how important horseshoe crabs are to modern medicine. Because their blue, copper-based blood quickly clots in the presence of bacterial toxins, medical researchers use it to test intravenous drugs, vaccines, and medical devices, ensuring that they are free of bacterial contamination. Every year, many thousands of horseshoe crabs a ....
Costa Rican researchers detected the South African variant of the coronavirus in a French tourist who was part of a group of 20 European visitors who tested positive for Covid-19 while traveling through the Central American country, authorities reported Tuesday. The South African variant, considered more transmissible and resistant to some vaccines, was detected in a 65-year-old French man who presented symptoms of Covid-19 on January 31, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health said in a statement. The Frenchman arrived in Costa Rica on January 16 with a group of his compatriots. Twenty tested positive for the coronavirus and six of them required hospitalization. ....
Public hospitals in Costa Rica began to gradually reduce the beds designated to the care of Covid-19 patients following a sustained fall in infections over recent weeks. The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), which manages public hospitals, said Friday that it will gradually reactivate care for other ailments, which had been suspended preserve capacity for coronavirus patients. “We hope to recover non-Covid face-to-face care services, which at the time should have been provided virtually, and other cases such as scheduled surgeries that had to be suspended,” said Mario Ruiz Cubillo, medical manager of the CCSS. Daily cases of Covid-19 in Costa Rica went from more than 1,200 in December to around 400 since the second week of January. ....