Minister of Health Daniel Salas, confirmed during a press conference Sunday, March 15, that the cases of coronavirus in the country have gone up to 35 cases.

The Minister showed visibly upset because the Government has been insisting non-stop on taking precautionary measures and asked for the help of all the population to take on preventive isolation and necessary measures, it also asked that bars, casinos and others keep their capacity under 50%, and yet a large number of people are not taking matters seriously with reports of large groups of people heading to the beach, making lines at bars and dance clubs in different areas of the country.

The Government therefore has announced a measure to close bars, casinos and dance clubs. Meanwhile, when it comes to schools, the number of public education centers that are being closed this week is now of 350. The complete closure also applies for the Amusement Park.

Other commerce such as restaurants, can operate but with a limitation of 50% of their total capacity.

Places that do not comply with the measures ordered will be subject to a mandatory closure for 30 days.

The 35 cases confirmed include 19 women and 16 men, out of which, 30 are Costa Rican and 5 are foreigners. There are 28 adults, 3 elderly and  4 minors. Three patients remain in intensive care.

The Government continues to call the attention of the population, after 9 days since the first case was reported in the country: “Now we are at 35, and it seems low compared to other countries, but where are we going to be in one week, or two?” said, Roman Macaya, President of the Social Security Service, who emphasized that 4 of the new cases are people that traveled and just came back to the country.

This comes at a time when Europe has been taking stronger and strict measures to prevent the transmission of the virus. Italy reported 368 deaths in the past 24 hours, 1,809 total deaths in the country.

“We have to take matters seriously, if we don’t fight united against this, it will not work out, this virus can be transferred with just a small drop of saliva, that may not affect one person but it can affect another, this is how serious it is“, concluded Salas.

*News in Development