Costa Rica has confirmed a total of 11,114 cases of Covid-19 through Sunday July 19 and out of these, 2,966 have already recovered. Today the country reached a new record in the number of people hospitalized with a total of 241 patients, out of which 44 remain in the intensive care unit.

8 more people have died for a total of 62 deaths related to Covid-19. One of the latest deaths registered was a 27-year-old man with no known underlying health problems.

Health authorities also confirmed that the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Jose, one of the largest hospitals in the country will only be doing qualified surgeries that cannot be reprogrammed, this as a temporary measure since 31 staff members have tested positive and 36 of their contacts within the same institution had to be placed in isolation, therefore the hospital is undergoing deep cleaning and disinfecting protocols.

The hospital reports 70 patients hospitalized for Covid-19, which is another reason they have made the decision of not receiving any more Covid-19 patients to try to decongest the hospital.
The medical manager of the Social Security Service, Mario Ruiz, commented: “This is an example, what happens at the San Juan de Dios Hospital: nurses, nurse auxiliaries, anesthesiologists, surgeons, they are all qualified personnel, they are even trained for specific procedures that they carry out, this is personnel we cannot substitute from one moment to the next”.