El Salvador offers hospital beds to Costa Rican coronavirus patients

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, offered hospital space to Costa Rica as it faces an upturn in coronavirus cases.

“Our brothers in Costa Rica now only have 8 beds for intensive care patients. There are 700 available here,” Bukele wrote on Twitter.

The Salvadoran president based his affirmations on statements offered by the manager of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), Mario Ruiz, where he detailed the lack of beds for serious patients and assured that they are going through a “critical situation.”

Nuestros hermanos de Costa Rica ya solo tienen 8 camas para pacientes en cuidados intensivos. Aquí hay 700 disponibles.

Lo menos que podemos hacer es ofrecerles atender a 100 pacientes costarricenses en nuestras UCIs.

Solo coordinemos el traslado 🇸🇻🇨🇷https://t.co/olkLQ6dP5Q

— 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) December 10, 2020

Costa Rica, with a population of 5 million inhabitants, has registered spikes in its daily cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks, as have several of its neighbors.

As of Wednesday, it accumulated 148,688 infections, of which 1,258 were new. A total of 1,864 people have died from the disease in this country.

The CCSS last week began alerting that it had limited space left for critical patients — due in part to a lack of qualified ICU personnel.

“The least we can do is offer to serve 100 Costa Rican patients in our ICUs,” added Bukele.

“Let’s just coordinate the transfer,” he added. For her part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Hill, said on Twitter that she is ready to support the management.

“Together we will move forward,” said Salvadoran Health Minister Francisco Alabí.

El Salvador, with 6.6 million inhabitants, accumulates 40,741 positive cases of Covid-19, with 1,174 deaths. The government considers the situation stable.