Current research in Virology & Retrovirology

But what might have been a recipe for a health disaster has turned into a relative success story of the pandemic. By 6 May, Costa Rica had reported 755 cases and six deaths. It’s a record on a par with that of New Zealand, widely regarded as a paradigm for effectively managing the virus. New Zealand has a similar-sized population and had reported 1,488 cases and 21 deaths by 6 May. The number of people recovering from coronavirus in Costa Rica has recently outpaced the number of new cases. By 4 May, the total number of people who had recovered was greater than the number of active cases. So how has Costa Rica been so successful in containing the virus? Costa Rican tech entrepreneur José Cayasso, whose business is based in New York, has no doubt about the reason for his nation’s resilience. “The key here is how quickly the government responded and how seriously they took the situation from the get-go,” he says in a YouTube video. “Few countries, even success stories like South Korea, have been as successful as Costa Rica in slowing the curve.” Costa Rica banned mass gatherings on 9 March and, on 16 March, declared a state of emergency, under which people were told to work from home, and schools and all non-essential businesses were closed. The country’s borders were subsequently shut on 19 March. Unlike some other countries in Latin America, Costa Rica has universal healthcare, on which it spends a higher proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average. The OECD says “there is much to praise” about a system that delivers higher life expectancy than many other OECD nations.But what might have been a recipe for a health disaster has turned into a relative success story of the pandemic. By 6 May, Costa Rica had reported 755 cases and six deaths. It’s a record on a par with that of New Zealand, widely regarded as a paradigm for effectively managing the virus. New Zealand has a similar-sized population and had reported 1,488 cases and 21 deaths by 6 May. The number of people recovering from coronavirus in Costa Rica has recently outpaced the number of new cases. By 4 May, the total number of people who had recovered was greater than the number of active cases. So how has Costa Rica been so successful in containing the virus? Costa Rican tech entrepreneur José Cayasso, whose business is based in New York, has no doubt about the reason for his nation’s resilience. “The key here is how quickly the government responded and how seriously they took the situation from the get-go,” he says in a YouTube video. “Few countries, even success stories like South Korea, have been as successful as Costa Rica in slowing the curve.” Costa Rica banned mass gatherings on 9 March and, on 16 March, declared a state of emergency, under which people were told to work from home, and schools and all non-essential businesses were closed. The country’s borders were subsequently shut on 19 March. Unlike some other countries in Latin America, Costa Rica has universal healthcare, on which it spends a higher proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average. The OECD says “there is much to praise” about a system that delivers higher life expectancy than many other OECD nations.