The Government of Costa Rica declared State of Emergency this Monday, March 16 due to coronavirus, the document was signed by the President, Carlos Alvarado, the Minister of Health Daniel Salas, and the interim Minister of Presidency Silvia Lara.

As part of the measures of the emergency state the Government announced that all public and private schools must remain closed from March 17th through April 13th, (Holy Week takes place this year from April 5th through April 12th); the catholic church also suspended the religious parades that traditionally take place during this week. The school year in public schools will extend through December 23.

Also, as of midnight on Wednesday, March 18th the country will close its borders to ALL foreigners, only Costa Rican citizens and residents will be able to enter the country, this with the exception of diplomats that are not affected by this measure. Everyone who comes in will have to attend mandatory preventive isolation for 14 days.

The authorities also continued to insist that companies should try to implement work from home modality when possible.

The Ministry of Health confirmed there are six more cases since yesterday, for a total of 41, out of which 6 are foreigners, 32 are adults, 5 senior citizens and 4 minors, 20 male and 21 females.

A total 615 cases have been discarded.

Approximately 180,000 people around the world have been infected with Covid-19, out of these, 80,000 recovered with no problem. Deaths reach almost 7,000 worldwide.

“We want to state that as a government we take these measures to protect everyone. It is time to unite, to take care of each other, that if we find someone doing something they shouldn’t be doing we should let them know, this is to protect the most vulnerable population, those with risk factors and senior citizens”, commented President Alvarado.