Nosara, COVID-19

Construction works and parties increased COVID-19 cases in Nosara

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The district of Nosara, in Nicoya, registers 12 people with the new active coronavirus, the head of the Nicoya Health Area, Luis Carlos Villalobos, confirmed to La Voz de Guanacaste. According to the doctor, the lack of safety measures in buildings and social activities led to the increase in cases.

“Some positive cases [came out] from some construction companies. The recreation occurred because one of the contacts of those positives did what has been said so much that we should not do, the blessed social activities, “said Villalobos.

The Ministry of Health detected five of the 12 cases by laboratory test and declared another seven due to epidemiological nexus. The latter are people who developed symptoms living with people diagnosed by testing.

The Minister of Health, Daniel Salas, explained at the August 7 conference that they implemented this type of diagnosis by nexus because the health system does not have the capacity to test so many people and, therefore, cannot deliver results efficiently.

Villalobos assured that the Nosara patients are in stable condition. “They are called, asked daily and everything is in control. We do not have any patients who need to be referred for hospital care ”.

Peak of active cases

Since the pandemic began, the coastal district had not registered more than two active cases at the same time. In the last two weeks, the number has multiplied to the current dozen.

To this will be added the results of the other 30 samples that the Health Area team took on Thursday, August 20. Those tests are in analysis.

The officials went in the middle of the mud, the tide and the rain on Thursday to places where not even the 4×4 car enters to take samples to know that there is no other point of spread,” Villalobos said.

According to the doctor and head of the Ebais de Nosara, Natalia Ulate, since the pandemic began in the country, they have tried to sample patients in their homes, despite the fact that they attend the consultation in person.

“If they come [to the Ebais] with flu symptoms, they are assessed and if they have direct contact [with a positive case] or symptoms that make us suspect they have covid, the day of the sampling is coordinated in their homes,” explained Ulate.

They apply this methodology to ensure that there is a car from the Nicoya Health Area available to transport the samples to Nicoya as quickly as possible and thus maintain the cold chain. If they take them at the Ebais, they may have to wait a long time to transfer them to Nicoya.

“We tell the patient to go home, to wear the mask, to stay away from his relatives, to try to use only utensils that do not mix with the others and we are going to take the sample the next day”, explained Ulate

For the head of the Health Area, taking samples in homes also prevents other infections. “It is not whimsical. According to the guidelines of medical care, it is necessary to prevent the patient from using the service, because by default a provision of the health service is where people gather ”.

And before a complication …

The staff of the Ebais de Nosara has not increased since the pandemic began, but it has 10 employees, an unusual number compared to other health centers of this type.

Four people usually work in the Ebais: a professional in medicine, two in nursing and a person in charge of registration, Eddy Apay, the medical assistant of the Chorotega Regional Directorate of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), told La Voz.

We have a pharmacist and primary care technicians who are not positions that all Ebais have, but due to the distance it is necessary to have them there,” said Apay.

The head of the Ebais, Natalia Ulate, explains that Ebais maintains the same medical equipment that they had prior to the pandemic. “Everything that is ventilators and all this is intra-hospital (…) because the Ebais means Basic Equipment for Comprehensive Health Care, so we are a basic team, we do not have ventilators, only an oxygen tank, masks, intubations in in case you have to intubate, ”he says.

Therefore, in case someone with COVID-19 in Nosara worsens their condition, they must be transferred to Hospital La Anexión. The doctors in charge of managing the pandemic in Nicoya and Nosara rely on the protocols to care for and transfer a critically ill patient. The district is located about 60 kilometers from the Nicoya Hospital.

“The disease is evolutionary, it is not acute emergency, so that is why the symptoms are being identified. For example, shortness of breath is progressive. The covid attacks you, it will not give you an acute crisis from one moment to the next, ”Villalobos explained.

Ulate added that in situations other than the pandemic, they have already had to transport serious people along that route. “We move as we can. We have had to transfer patients in red and with the road in poor condition, but it is the reality of this town ”.

They would use the district’s Red Cross “covid ambulance” to transport him. According to Ulate, it is conditioned with oxygen and with the driver’s cabin sealed so that the air of the space destined for patients does not enter. In addition, it ensures that most of the time the ambulance is in the community.

“The Red Cross is now universal. In the event that a patient appears in Santa Cruz and there is no ambulance, and that the one in Nosara is available, the regional would dispatch the one in Nosara. But most of the days he is here ”, he adds.

So far, they have not had to use it in emergency situations due to the covid. They did transfer a patient “but not because he was delicate, but because he did not belong to Nosara, so he moved to the area where he lived,” Ulate said.

The head of the Nicoya Health Area rules out that they are going to carry out a massive screening, because they still keep track of the cases. “Fortunately, the cases have been detected and contained,” says Villalobos. “We are not concerned because you see the links, you see where they come from, where they are, and you see the subsequent contacts,” he added.

According to data from Friday, August 21 from the Ministry of Health, the canton of Nicoya has 29 active cases of people with COVID-19.

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