Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Tuesday, September 29

Costa Rica announced 19 new coronavirus-related deaths over the last day for a total of 880, according to official data released Tuesday afternoon by the Health Ministry.

Six-hundred and six people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19; 230 are in intensive care.

The Health Ministry confirmed 890 new cases, of which 672 were identified via a lab test, for a total of 74,604.

A total of 30,703 people have been cleared as recovered; the Health Ministry says this number lags behind actual recoveries. Costa Rica has 43,021 known active cases.

The data indicate Costa Rica has 17.3 COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 people. The country is averaging 15.3 deaths each day in September, including double-digit deaths for 17 straight days.

Costa Rica has 359 intensive-care beds and 986 beds for less-complex coronavirus hospitalizations. This means 64% of Costa Rica’s ICU beds are currently occupied.

Costa Rica’s outbreak in a global context

Costa Rica has the eighth-most new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, according to data compiled by The New York Times. Only Israel, Andorra, Aruba, Bahrain, Montenegro, Argentina and Spain have more new cases per 100,000 residents over the last week.

About 1.2% of people who tested positive for the coronavirus in Costa Rica have died. The 880 deaths comprise 283 adults and 597 elderly adults.

The below graph shows Costa Rica’s test-positivity rate (the fraction of tests that come back positive) as of Saturday, September 26. The Tico Times calculates daily positivity using Health Ministry data as follows:

(People testing positive) ÷ (People testing positive + people testing negative)

The World Health Organization recommends testing enough to keep the positivity rate under 5%; Costa Rica’s high test-positivity rate suggests it’s missing milder or asymptomatic cases, allowing the coronavirus to continue to spread.

We’ll update this weekly.