COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico | |
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Disease | COVID-19 |
Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
Location | Puerto Rico |
First outbreak | Wuhan, Hubei, China |
Index case | San Juan |
Arrival date | March 13, 2020 (4 years, 5 months and 6 days) |
Confirmed cases | 267,677[1] |
Suspected cases‡ | 208,091[1] |
Hospitalized cases | 47 (current) [2] |
Deaths | 4,152 [2] |
Vaccinations | 95.4% (2,935,115) have received at least one dose 85.9% (2,642,924) have received both doses |
Government website | |
Puerto Rico Department of Health | |
‡Suspected cases have not been confirmed by laboratory tests as being due to this strain, although some other strains may have been ruled out. |
The COVID-19 pandemic in Puerto Rico was an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Puerto Rico started addressing the risks of an outbreak in early 2020. The island took "some of the most dramatic steps of any U.S. jurisdiction to control the virus," and "several U.S. cities and states followed Puerto Rico's lead, imposing curfews and shutting businesses" of their own.[3] On February 29, Puerto Rico then governor Wanda Vázquez Garced established a task force to look into how the virus could affect Puerto Rico and to lay out plans on how to best mitigate any outbreaks. Given the long delays encountered by the Puerto Rico government in obtaining reasonable turnaround from the CDC test labs in Atlanta for samples submitted for testing, the local government took the position that every suspicious case was to be treated as a COVID-19 case until test results were received, and ordered patients to be kept in isolation for 14 days. On March 12, one day before the first COVID-19 case was confirmed, the governor declared a state of emergency and activated the Puerto Rico National Guard to help monitor travelers arriving to the Island through its airports and cruise ship docks. In Section 6 of the bulletin, the citizens of Puerto Rico were put on a curfew allowing them to travel out of their homes from 5AM to 9PM only for essential business such as to buy medicine or seek medical assistance, purchase groceries, or to care for a sick person.[4]
The first cases of COVID-19 in Puerto Rico were reported on March 13. They consisted of two Italian tourists and a 71-year-old cancer patient. The governor expressing concern that the curfew established on the 12th was not being followed, took stronger actions, and asked all non-essential businesses be close from March 15 through March 30.[5][6] The first death recorded was that of the 68-year-old Italian woman tourist; a few days later her husband was reported to have recovered from the virus. Testing is being conducted by veteran's hospitals, private labs, and the Puerto Rico Department of Health.[7]
As of October 24, 2021[update], 2,298,983 residents of Puerto Rico have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, equivalent to 88.7% of the population.[8]
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