Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Wednesday, September 30

Costa Rica announced 24 new coronavirus-related deaths over the last day for a total of 904, according to official data released Wednesday afternoon by the Health Ministry.

Five-hundred and seventy-four people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19; 222 are in intensive care. Both represent decreases compared to Tuesday.

The Health Ministry confirmed 1,156 new cases, of which 902 were identified via a lab test, for a total of 75,760.

A total of 37,841 people have been cleared as recovered, an increase of more than 7,000 compared to Tuesday. The Health Ministry said the record jump is due to compiling data from regional health authorities.

Costa Rica has 37,015 known active cases.

The data indicate Costa Rica has 17.7 COVID-19-related deaths per 100,000 people. The country is averaging 15.6 deaths each day in September (468 total), including double-digit deaths for 18 straight days.

Costa Rica has 359 intensive-care beds and 986 beds for less-complex coronavirus hospitalizations. This means 62% of Costa Rica’s ICU beds are currently occupied.

Costa Rica’s outbreak in a global context

Costa Rica has the ninth-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, Spain and Sint Maartin 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 904 deaths comprise 290 adults and 614 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.