On December 11 and 12, the Nosara Civic Association (NCA) in alliance with Paradise Medical Services and the Echandi Laboratory carried out a large test, free for the Nosara community.
101 monoclonal antibody blood tests (IGM and 101 IGI) were applied, which helps to determine if the person has or had Covid-19 in the past. Additionally, 131 PCR tests were performed, known as swabs, which determine if there is an active infection of the coronavirus.
Workers from hotels, restaurants, surf schools, real estate agencies, construction employees and residents of Nosara arrived at the test site.
According to the analysis carried out by Laboratorio Echandi, in the PCR tests only two people were positive. The first was approximately a 50-year-old man and the second about a 25-year-old woman. Both the NCA and the medical group are committed to safeguarding the privacy of positive patients; however, the data was sent to the Ministry of Health to be taken into account.
On the other hand, in the case of blood tests, seven people reported having had contact with the virus at some point. This represents only 5% of the sample.
The large test does not correspond to an epidemiological study, but nevertheless the Echandi Laboratory and Paradise Medical Services concluded that since there is a relatively low prevalence of antibodies in the results, it means that the vast majority of the population is still susceptible to Covid-19.
Dr. Alejandro Gutiérrez, from Paradise Medical Services, said the important thing about the project was to support the community and the tourism sector in detecting the virus in personnel exposed to contact with other people, as well as promoting compliance with sanitary measures.
“It is important that the people who visit Nosara feel the security that the community is abiding by the protocols of the Ministry of Health and that it is making an extra effort to control and prevent the spread of the virus,” said the doctor.
For its part, the Echandi Laboratory medical group mentioned as part of the recommendations that although the employees of the hotels and restaurants in Nosara are complying with the use of masks, social distancing and hand washing, many of the tourists visiting the area are not abiding by the guidelines.
From the Civic Association of Nosara, we want to issue a call so that we do not forget to comply with the health measures and in this way, together as a community, we can continue working without promoting an increase in the expansion of Covid-19.
According to the latest district data report from the Ministry of Health, as of December 28th, Nosara registers 26 active cases for a total of 174 accumulated cases.
Reminder:
Do not forget that as part of the prevention measures the beaches of the Ostional Wildlife Refuge will be open now until 5pm. As of January 4 and until January 17, the beaches of Costa Rica will be open only from 5:00 am to 2:30 pm. (This also applies to the beaches included within the Refuge such as Guiones and Pelada).