COVID-19 Task Force: Increased Fatigue Of Hospital Beds

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said that currently there has been an increase in COVID-19 patients entering health facilities for outpatient treatment to hospitalization.

This figure, he said, then had an impact on the increasing use of beds in hospitals in various regions in Indonesia.

"I need to convey that there is currently an increasing trend of patients who are admitted to outpatient care, emergency services, and hospitalizations compared to the period before the long holiday," Wiku said in a press conference broadcast online on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Tuesday, November 24.

According to him, in Banten Province currently the bed capacity in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) room is 97 percent filled or reaches 115 rooms. As for the currently used isolation room for COVID-19 patients, it has reached 80 percent.

Meanwhile, for DKI Jakarta Province, based on data as of Sunday, November 22, the number of beds in the ICU room that was occupied was 69.57 percent, while for the isolated room currently occupied reached 71.66 percent.

Then in West Java Province, 73.45 percent of ICU beds that have been used and isolation beds that have been used by patients reached 71.66 percent. Next, in Central Java Province, 80 percent of the ICU beds that have been filled and isolation beds that have been filled are 77.4 percent.

Furthermore, in East Java Province, 54.86 percent of the ICU beds were filled and the isolation beds were 57.43 percent filled.

So that from the data he explained, there were West Java and Central Java Provinces, the level of use of the bed in the ICU room and in the isolation room was more than 70 percent. Meanwhile, the level of use of beds in isolation rooms is more than 70 percent in DKI Jakarta, West Java and Central Java Provinces.

With this figure, the COVID-19 Task Force then called the transmission of this virus in the community a real thing and still a high possibility. So, in order to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, the government then asked the public to discipline the 3M health protocol, namely washing hands, wearing masks, and maintaining distance and away from crowds at all times without exception.

Meanwhile, for the local government, Wiku asked them to ensure that health services meet the standards for COVID-19 patients who are being treated both in the ICU and isolation rooms so that they can recover quickly.

In addition, local governments are also asked to coordinate with the central government regarding the availability of beds in hospitals. "Do not let the hospital be completely filled with Covid-19 patients and obstruct health services which are the right of all people without exception," he concluded.