Trenggalek Builds 2 New Service Buildings To Anticipate The Spike Of COVID-19

PHOTO VIA BETWEEN

TRENGGALEK - The government of Trenggalek Regency, East Java, has built two new four-story buildings on an area of more than one hectare to increase the capacity of inpatient services including the emergency room and a number of intensive care installations to anticipate a spike in COVID-19 cases.

"Alhamdulillah, the construction progress has reached 37 percent. We are very optimistic that this can be completed quickly according to the target," said Trenggalek Regent Mochamad Nur Arifin as quoted by Antara, Monday, January 3.

He explained that the two new four-story buildings, which were built with a budget of Rp. 149 billion, are targeted for completion in April 2022.

The laying of the first stone marking the start of the COVID-19 service building project using loan funds from the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program was carried out at the end of October 2021, so that until now it has been going on for 1.5 months.

"Although the construction contract was completed in April, we asked for it to be accelerated by the end of February," he said.

Director of RSUD dr. Soedomo Trenggalek Rofiq Hindiono explained that the two new buildings were projected for two different functions.

The first four-story building on the east side will be used for emergency installations, incentive care units, operating rooms and others.

Meanwhile, a second building on the west side will be used for inpatient care with a capacity of 130 rooms.

The two buildings, he said, were built to anticipate the risk of a spike in COVID-19 cases.

In the spike in cases due to the mid-2021 delta variant, according to him, the Trenggalek District Hospital was overwhelmed with handling patients.

The emergency room was full to the point that it overflowed into the courtyard of the building to accommodate patients.

Meanwhile, the current status of COVID-19 at Dr Soedomo Trenggalek Hospital since the last two weeks has been nil. According to Rofiq, there were no findings of new cases or hospitalized patients, which indicates that the pandemic in this region is quite under control.

If the spike in COVID-19 cases does not occur, he said, the two new buildings will function as additional facilities for hospitals.

"We will rearrange it later," said Rofiq.