Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Thursday, August 27

Costa Rica announced 11 new coronavirus-related deaths over the past day for a total of 397, according to official data released Thursday afternoon by the Health Ministry.

Three-hundred and ninety-five people are hospitalized with COVID-19; 132 are in intensive care.

The Health Ministry confirmed 985 new cases over the past 24 hours for a cumulative total of 37,292. Of these new cases, 773 were identified via a PCR-RT lab test, while the remaining 212 were confirmed via their epidemiological nexus.

Thursday, 1,154 more people were classified as recovered.

Costa Rica has 22,424 known active cases and 14,471 recoveries. The data indicate Costa Rica has 7.77 COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 people.

Costa Rica coronavirus cases on August 27, 2020. Tico Times graph.

Below is Costa Rica’s test-positivity rate (the fraction of tests that come back positive) as of Tuesday. We calculated this by dividing Costa Rica’s daily lab-confirmed positive cases by the total number of tests performed that day.

e.g. on Tuesday, Costa Rica confirmed 842 new cases — 602 via a PCR-RT lab test. Meanwhile, 702 new people tested negative. Hence the day’s positivity rate was 602 ÷ (602 + 702).

Costa Rica’s hospital capacity

Costa Rica can allocate up to 1,058 total intermediate-care beds and 287 intensive-care beds for COVID-19 patients at public hospitals across the country. Using this capacity impacts availability of other health services.

The 132 intensive-care patients reported Thursday would correspond to 46% of the public-hospital capacity. (Note that some of these patients may be at private hospitals.)

To put the 11 new deaths in context: Costa Rica recorded 23 deaths attributed to respiratory viruses in all of 2018, according to Health Ministry data.

The below graphic will update automatically as the Health Ministry releases new coronavirus data.

If you believe you have COVID-19, contact Costa Rica’s hotline at 1322. English-speaking staff and mental health professionals are available.