The ICU Room For The COVID-19 Referral Hospital In Jakarta Is Starting To Run Low

Illustration (Photo: Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said that currently the capacity of the intensive care unit (ICU) specifically for COVID-19 at referral hospitals in Jakarta is running low.

Currently, the use of beds in the ICU has reached 77 percent, out of a total of 483 beds. This figure has almost reached the 80 percent limit of bed wearability set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

"The number of use of beds in the ICU is 77 percent. This condition is not ideal," said Wiku at Graha BNPB, East Jakarta, Monday, August 31.

From this concern, Wiku said that the government was pushing to reduce the use of beds so that it could be controlled to below the 60 percent figure.

The method that will be done is the transfer of patients treated at the referral hospital with moderate and mild criteria. So, he said, the burden for health workers in the 67 COVID-19 referral hospitals in DKI could be reduced.

"Efforts are being made to optimize the Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital. Patients with moderate and mild criteria can be transferred from the covid referral hospital in Jakarta to Wisma Atlet," explained Wiku.

Apart from the ICU room, the capacity of isolation beds for COVID-19 patients at referral hospitals is running low. Currently, 70 percent of the bed capacity is used from the total 4,456 beds provided. In fact, the occupancy of the bed last week was still 67 percent.

That means, DKI only has 10 percent of the 80 percent threshold for the occupancy of the special hospital for COVID-19, which is set by WHO at 80 percent.

"The capacity of our hospital's isolation room is now almost 70 percent. Indeed, the current condition is increasing more than last month," said Head of the DKI Jakarta Health Service, Widyastuti.

Widyastuti said the increased bed capacity for COVID-19 patients was due to increasingly massive contact tracing efforts.

In the past week, the DKI Provincial Government has conducted PCR tests on 45,866 people. This figure is 4 times the WHO target every week, in which Jakarta must test at least 10,645 per week.

"The point is, we continue to increase the testing capacity to ensure how residents know their status. Starting with confirmed cases, we are tracing. From the tracing results, we know how the pattern of spread is," said Widyastuti.