Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Friday, August 28

Costa Rica announced 10 new coronavirus-related deaths over the past day for a total of 407, according to official data released Friday afternoon by the Health Ministry.

Four-hundred and eleven people are hospitalized with COVID-19; 140 are in intensive care.

The Health Ministry confirmed 1,193 new cases over the past 24 hours for a cumulative total of 38,485. This represents a day-over-day record of new cases for Costa Rica during the pandemic.

Of these new cases, 977 were identified via a PCR lab test, while the remaining 216 were confirmed via their epidemiological nexus.

Friday, 163 more people were classified as recovered.

Costa Rica has 23,444 known active cases and 14,634 recoveries. The data indicate Costa Rica has 7.96 COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 people.

Costa Rica coronavirus cases on August 28, 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 140 intensive-care patients reported Friday would correspond to 49% of the public-hospital capacity. (Note that some of these patients may be at private hospitals.)

To put the 10 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.