Government Will Create Emergency Care Tents If The Increase In COVID-19 Cases More Than 100 Percent

Wiku Adisasmito, Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 Wiku Adisasmito said the government would prepare a scenario in the event of a spike in COVID-19 cases.

According to Wiku, the government will set up an emergency tent or field hospital to treat patients if the increase in cases reaches more than 100 percent from the previous period.

"If there is an increase in cases of more than 100 percent, then health facilities will establish emergency tent services in the area for treating COVID-19 patients or establish a field hospital, in collaboration with BNPB and the TNI," said Wiku during a YouTube broadcast of the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday, 3 December.

Another scenario is also being prepared by the government if there is an increase in COVID-19 cases by 50 to 100 percent. When that happens, the government will juggle a public care room to increase the care capacity of COVID-19 patients.

"Health facilities will increase the capacity of public care rooms to become COVID-19 treatment rooms. This can be in existing buildings, floors, or blocks. So, it can increase the capacity of inpatient rooms for COVID-19," said Wiku.

Meanwhile, if there is an increase in cases of 20-50 percent, then the service will still operate without any changes. "Because basically, the hospital can still accommodate," he said.

Wiku said that the occupancy of isolation beds and ICU for COVID-19 treatment throughout Indonesia as of December 1 was 57.97 percent.

Then, the province with the highest bed occupancy rate was in West Java, which was 77 percent, while the lowest was North Maluku, which was 10 percent.

"From here, the Ministry of Health has engineered health services according to the size of the need for beds to anticipate a surge and ensure that public health services can be guaranteed, regardless of the situation," he concluded.