Severe restrictions in Costa Rica, faced with a resurgence of the virus

The Costa Rican authorities, faced with an outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, decided on Friday to impose severe restrictions on transport and commerce in the capital San José and its suburbs. Costa Rica, which has so far been a model in Central America in the fight against the new coronavirus, has been facing for two weeks a "very worrying acceleration" of the epidemic, had warned the Costa Rican Minister of Health the day before Daniel Salas.

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Until July 19, residents of San José and its region, the most populous in the country, will be prohibited from driving by car, except for one daily outing during the week to run errands, while only essential businesses will be opened (food stores, pharmacies and health services). In addition, public transport will only operate at 20% of its capacity. Finally, only the alternating circulation of vehicles according to their even or odd registration will be authorized on Saturdays and Sundays, from 05:00 local to 17:00 (daytime hours in Costa Rica).

“We need to have as little traffic (people) as possible. This is our mission, " said President Carlos Alvarado when announcing these measures at a press conference. The authorities hope to be able to "track the contagion" again , while the country has officially entered the "community contagion" phase , according to the WHO. A total of 649 new cases were recorded Thursday in this small country of five million inhabitants, the highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic. However, this figure fell back to 360 on Friday. The total toll is now 6,845 proven cases, with 26 deaths.

"The fact of not circulating during these next nine days will increase the possibility of finding the trace of the virus, which we have lost," argued the Minister of Health.