Archive for April, 2009
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Costa Rica has set aside $5 million to help stave off a possible pandemic of influenza A (H1N1), a situation the government declared as a national health emergency after identifying two potential cases of infection, officials said Wednesday.
The announcement of the emergency funds came as the World Health Organization (WHO) upped its alert level from Phase 4 to 5. (For a complete explanation of the WHO’s alert phases, click here )
In a weekly televised cabinet meeting Wednesday, President Oscar Arias said Costa Rica is examining 50 suspected cases, but he called for calm from citizens and urged them to keep faith in the country’s well-regarded medical institutions. (more…)
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Thursday, April 30th, 2009
The Coast Guard rescued a survivors of a SF-based boat that sank off Costa Rica this morning.
Stephen Szukics, 55, of Fort Worth, Texas, and James Winningham, 45, of Murphys, Calif. told the Coast Guard they were en route to Texas via the Panama Canal aboard the Black Pearl, a 55-foot boat homeported in Loch Lomond Marina, San Francisco, when the vessel sank.
The two survivors, who were found aboard a life raft 50 miles west of Costa Rica, were reported to be in good condition and will be transferred to land at the next port call for the Coast Guard Cutter Sherman, which is based in Alameda. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Mankind has finally become aware that the financial crisis is not the most dangerous thing in the world. The world has come across a new danger – the swine flu virus. Many explain yesterday’s reduction of stock markets with the threat of the epidemic of the new disease. The struggle against the distribution of the new virus has made a number of countries ban the imports of pork. Russia introduced a ban too.
Russia will not suffer from a shortage of pork. The cattle-breeding industry in the country still shows positive indexes despite the crisis.
Swine flu has become the most talked-about subject in only a couple of days. This disease was originally discovered during the 1970s, although it was believed that the virus was not dangerous to humans. However, a year-old child died of the disease in China in 1999. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Costa Rican authorities confirmed Tuesday the first case of swine flu in the country, which would also be the first in Central America.
Costa Rican Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila said the life of the patient - a 21-year-old woman who lives in the San Jose metropolitan area - was not at risk. Doctors were following her progress and the health and that of her relatives, the minister said.
The woman was said to have returned from Mexico Saturday. The authorities were planning to evaluate all passengers aboard the commercial flight that brought her back to Costa Rica.
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Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Managua - Nicaragua is adopting measures to prevent contagion with the swine fever outbreak affecting Mexico and the US that also reports human-to-human transmission.
The National System for Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Assistance (SINAPRED) banned live pigs and porcine derivative imports from Mexico or crossing through Mexico, which has already reported more than 20 fatalities.
El Salvador, Costa Rica and Guatemala adopted similar measures, and the latter has placed an epidemiological closure of its border with Mexico.
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Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Crime in Costa Rica is on the increase, especially in homicides, which has gone from an average, in the whole country, of one murder daily to 1.5, and San José leading the way with 57 homicides so far this year.
The numbers were provided by Paula Guido, head of the homicides division of the Ministerio Público, who confirmed that the number of homicides is on the increase.
Guido said that for the same period in 2008, there were 56 families grieving a loved one.
However, contrary to what one would believe, the largest number of homicides have occurred in the peripheral areas of San José and not the downtown core, where crime is supposedly the worst. (more…)
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Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Peru and Costa Rica Friday reinforced their epidemic vigilance measures following a deadly swine flu outbreak in Mexico.
In Peru, health services intensified vigilance actions for all the people traveling from Mexico and the United States in an effort to detect symptoms of the flu.
Although there has not been any similar case registered in Peru, the alert state will continue as a preventive measure, Peruvian health authorities said.
Meanwhile in Costa Rica, Health Minister Maria Luisa Avila told Xinhua on Friday that her country had declared a sanitary alert across the country.
Like Peru, there has not been any case of flu infection reported in Costa Rica, but Avila said the situation in Mexico are “worrying.”
According to Avila, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock also took actions by observing the swines in the country, and the migratory authorities were requested to strengthen vigilance measures at the airports. All passengers from Mexico will receive check.
The Mexican authorities have confirmed 20 deaths across the country from this flu outbreak.
According to earlier media reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that there had been 57 suspected deaths in Mexico from the outbreak of what it identified as “swineflu.”
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
Costa Rica’s Monteverde Cloud Forest is a treasure trove of botanical wonders.
It’s also a major pain to get there.
Five miles of new paving on the Monteverde Road was finished in December, adding to the seven miles already paved.
But the last 13-mile stretch is still an infamous 1-½- to 2-hour trip along a potholed, take-your-life-in-your-hands uphill road better suited for donkeys. Crawling along at barely 5 mph, vehicles weave up the mountainside, stones flying from the tires over the no-rail precipice.
Purists always have been against paving the whole route. They worry that tourists will overwhelm the fragile spot that is home to a rich ecosystem that includes 400 species of birds, 600 of butterflies, 300 of orchids and 200 of ferns.
But with tourism faltering due to the worldwide recession (visitor numbers to Monteverde hover between 100,000 and 250,000 people a year), sentiment is building for paving the entire route — with caveats. (more…)
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
The percentage of births of quadruplets and quintuplets recently in Costa Rica far exceeds the world average, a phenomenon that specialists say is due to fertility treatments that couples often undergo in this Central American country.
Over the past six years, Costa Rica has registered a record number – in proportion to the country’s relatively small population – of these two types of multiple births.
According to figures published Sunday by the local daily La Nacion, worldwide the average is for there to be 1 set of quadruplets for every 512,000 births (or 1.95 sets per million births), but in Costa Rica over the period 2003-2008, there were 416,831 births and 11 sets of four babies delivered (or 26.4 sets per million births). (more…)
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Monday, April 27th, 2009
The New Mexico National Guard transported several Costa Rican dignitaries, including the vice minister of public security and the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, via UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter yesterday so they could observe the progress of exercise Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarias 2009.
The exercise is designed to test and improve regional and national disaster response capabilities within Central America and the Caribbean Basin.
New Mexico National Guardsmen are heavily involved in the exercise, performing search-and-rescue rehearsal missions, exchanging disaster response techniques and procedures with Costa Rican emergency officials, performing remote-location medical treatment and interacting with residents all over the country. (more…)
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Friday, April 24th, 2009
CEMEX, founded in Mexico in 1906, that has grown to one of the top global companies, is a leading producer of cement and ready-mix concrete in Costa Rica.
The economic crisis that has hit the construction industry in Costa Rica is the main reason behind the firing of 125 employees by the cement company, CEMEX. The firing represents 50% of the total staff.
In addition it shut down 5 plants across the country. (more…)
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Two C-17 Globemasters landed yesterday at San Jose International Airport to deliver three UH-60 Black Hawks and medical equipment for use in Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarias exercise in Costa Rica.
FA-HUM is a U.S. Southern Command sponsored Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief field training exercise and U.S. Army South is the executive agent. New Mexico National Guard will join other soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guard personnel and civilians from USSOUTHCOM, U.S. Army South, U.S. Joint Forces Command, and U.S. Air Force South.
With the arrival of the helicopters, soldiers of the NMNG rev up to begin operational support for the exercise. U.S. Army Capt. Paul Saiz, Commander of Charlie Company, 1-171st General Support Aviation Battalion, New Mexico National Guard, said, “This is a great opportunity for us to work with our Costa Rican partners and are glad that we are able to respond during our annual training to help them with their national emergency training.”
U.S. Coast Guard Commander Mark Camacho, Chief, U.S. Office of the Defense Representative, U.S. Embassy, Costa Rica, was at the flight line to meet the arrival of the aircraft and he actively engaged with the national and international print and broadcast media members who covered the event. (more…)
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
The news of the closing of the eastbound lane in Sabana Sur helped eliminate traffic congestion in the area, as the installation of a sewer main between MAG and Universal, as part of the widening of the road.
At its height the line of cars did not reach 500 metres at the Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganadería (MAG), where eastbound traffic is rerouted to Pavas and Sabana norte.
The closure will continue until May 5, according to the contractor.
The road that runs parallel to the autopista and the Pavas train line, is an important connection to not only the south side of the Sabana, but also to the Hatillos, Alajuelita, Escazu and points west.
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Travelling from San Jose to Santa Ana on the carretera a Calera (autopista Prospero Fernandez) will cost, beginning the first week in May, ¢310 colones, each way. To get to Piedades and Cuidad Colon, add another ¢160 colones.
Those are the toll booth rates announced by the Ministerio de Obras Publicas y Transportes (MOPT) for the old-new highway from the Gimnasion Nacional in La Sabana to the Pacific port of Caldera.
The MOPT assures that the San Jose - Santa Ana portion of the road will be ready for the first week in May, at which time it will begin charging tolls, in both direction.
The road will have 28 toll booths (14 in each direction) west of the Escazu intersection and another 10 toll booths east of Piedades. In total, when the road is completed to Caldera, there will be 16 toll booths at Orotina, near Pozon. (more…)
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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
The city of Alajuela, northwest of San José, has become the fifth Costa Rica home of a PriceSmart warehouse shopping club.
The warehouse, across from the Mutual Alajuela headquarters and the entrance to Barrio La Trinidad, raises to 26 the number of PriceSmart membership shopping clubs worldwide. The company has warehouses in a total of 12 countries, including Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and countries across the Caribbean.
Recession does not seem to be deterring PriceSmart buyers; in fact, the opposite appears to be true. The company announced a 34 percent increase in sales profit for the U.S. fiscal second quarter, according to Forbes.com.
We have better prices and special packaging, which is very good for savings, said PriceSmart’s Costa Rica marketing manager, Carla Chaves, who pointed out that the club’s shoppers purchase products in three, four and six packs.
The 5,000 square meter Alajuela warehouse, which opened doors Friday, cost about $14 million to build and is creating 120 new jobs in the area, according to a company press release.
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