Coronavirus COVID-19 And Costa Rica
People who are considering buying real estate property in Costa Rica want to know about Coronavirus Covid-19 and Costa Rica, as well they should.
Costa Rica has done a very good job. In fact it is a model for other countries as to how to manage this pandemic!
UPDATED 04-15-21:
According to the link below, there have been only 3,044 deaths from Covid-19 in Costa Rica or 593 deaths per million. Compare this to the USA's 1,741 deaths per million. So the USA has had about 3 times as many deaths per million than Costa Rica.
The President of this Democratic country relied heavily on the Minister of Health to set the guidelines. Then the President motivated the people to follow those guidelines in part by laws and in part by appearing in the media to appeal to the people directly.
They tracked the cases and created red, orange and yellow areas throughout the pandemic depending on the number of cases.
Driving was limited depending what "county" you were in and what the number of cases was in that particular county. Driving was limited to only 5 days a week during the worst of the pandemic and curfews were set as early as 7pm. Crowds at churches and funerals and so forth were restricted.
Throughout the pandemic most of the bars, churches, restaurants and other places where people gather in large numbers were forced to close. Tourism was shut down for quite a while.
Masks were mandated for entering supermarkets and other large stores and most had gel they asked one to use at the front door, and many of the supermarkets required the taking of your temperature by palm or forehead by someone at the door. Stores set up spots on the floor for people to stand when in line to buy or pay for something, at a distance of about 6 feet apart and at times the number of people who could enter a given store were limited.
During this time I saw no one having a problem with these rules. Some people complained in private and in the media but I saw no one ever refusing to wear a mask or keep their distance like they did in the USA.
By cooperating with the Minister of Health's guidelines the pandemic was kept under control.
By March 2021 - perhaps sooner, I don't have the date in front of me - many restaurants were allowed to open to a smaller than normal number of customers, even bars were open. Tourism opened back up around this time but with some precautions like health insurance and a Covid test.
By early 2021 vaccinations started among health care professionals, and then opened up to people over 65. Currently those over 65 are being vaccinated.
More and more people will be vaccinated in this manner of determining who is the most at risk and most in need of vaccination. While our rate of vaccinating is much slower than the USofA, this is no doubt due to Costa Rica being a much less affluent country. But given that, they are doing a pretty good job of getting people vaccinated.
So far, they are using the Pfizer vaccine administered by the EBAIS/CAJA National health care system.
As of this date (04-15-21) they are a long way from herd immunity but there have been so relatively few deaths from Covid in Costa Rica that - while they are still concerned and keeping tabs on the situation - they have begun to "open up" to many businesses including hotels and restaurants. Masks are still required in supermarkets and hardware stores and so on.
Mask wearing is not enforced by law but I don't believe any major store will permit entry without a mask. I have not heard of nor seen the kind of refusal to wear a mask that is seen in the USA. Perhaps this is why Costa Rica's number of deaths per million from Covid is much smaller than the USA.
For now, you can check these links:
Costa Rica COVID-19 stats - Realtime coronavirus statistics with charts
AND:
COVID-19 pandemic in Costa Rica - Wikipedia
AND:
5 reasons Costa Rica is winning praise for fighting COVID-19
So Covid-19 in Costa Rica has been a major issue just like other countries around the world. But all in all Costa Rica and Covid-19 has been a success story.
