Emergency Room A Number Of Hospitals In Bandung Closed Services Due To Low Oxygen Stocks, Deputy Mayor: Due To Panic Buying

BANDUNG - Deputy Mayor of Bandung, Yana Mulyana, stated that the lack of oxygen stock in the community was caused by panic buying in the midst of increasing COVID-19 cases.

According to him, the current oxygen supply scheme is correct with 90 percent supply for medical needs and 10 percent for the community. However, he sees that there is now a panic in the community to buy oxygen.

"Yes, so people are panic buying, someone suddenly buys (oxygen) tubes, even though they don't need them yet", Yana said in Bandung, West Java, quoted by Antara, Monday, July 5th.

In addition, several hospitals have temporarily closed services at the COVID-19 Special Emergency Department (IGD) due to depleting oxygen stocks.

Yana assessed that oxygen cylinder providers have limited production capabilities. For this reason, he encourages these providers to increase their production capacity to adapt to current needs.

"The lack of oxygen is due to a lot of explosions of people coming to the emergency room at the same time, while the health facilities are just like that, the number of health workers may even be reduced", said Yana.

He also appealed to people who are not too symptomatic not to go directly to the hospital to minimize the explosion of patients in the hospital.

"So that might make health facilities overcapacity", said Yana.

The term panic buying itself is a phenomenon when many people over-buy a product or need because it is triggered by concerns about something that is or will happen.