48 Nurses Died Due to COVID-19, Minister of Health Terawan: Most of Them Were in East Java

Menteri Kesehatan Terawan Agus Putranto dalam sebuah kegiatan di Kantor Kemenkopolhukam (Wardhany Tsa Tsia/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health, Terawan Agus Putranto, said that there are 2,310 nurses from 16,286 health workers in various places to deal with COVID-19. Sadly, 48 of them died while carrying out their duties. Most of them were in the East Java region.

"I also express my deep sorrow for the deaths of 48 nurses in their struggle to help COVID-19 patients. Most of them are from the East Java region," said Terawan during his speech at the Nurse Prayer for the Country on BNPB YouTube account, Tuesday, September 15.

President Jokowi had ordered him and Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, to provide compensation to medical personnel who died.

Furthermore, Terawan reminded health workers, such as doctors and nurses, to continue to comply with health protocols. It is because they have to come face to face with patients.

Discipline in every process of treating COVID-19 patients is an important key. "Every action, starting from picking up the patient, admitting them to the emergency room, implementing the action or treatment, or releasing the patient, we must pay attention to the health protocol," he said.

"During a break or lunch, you must also apply health protocols," he added.

Regarding the number of health workers, Terawan said that there were 16,286 Nusantara Sehat health workers and internships at the COVID-19 hospital and health laboratories that carried out testing of this virus sample.

There are still 3,500 internship doctors who are ready to be deployed to handle COVID-19. Also, the other 800 health workers are ready to be placed. They are consist of pulmonary specialists, anesthetists, internal medicine specialists, and various other health workers such as general doctors and nurses.

It is known, based on data from the Ministry of Health as of September 14, from 22,606 specimens examined, there were 3,141 new positive cases of COVID-19.

"The total accumulation of positive cases since COVID-19 was discovered in Indonesia has reached 221,523 people," the Ministry of Health was quoted as saying, Monday, September 14.

The number of recovered cases increased by 3,395, bringing a total of 158,405 people to recovery. Then, the confirmed positive cases who died increased by 118 people, and the total is 8,841 people.

The province with the newest cases was in DKI Jakarta, with 879 new cases, and a total of 55,099 cases. DKI Jakarta is also the province with the most accumulated cases in Indonesia.

It's followed by East Java, which has 343 new cases with a total of 38,431 cases. West Java has 203 new cases and a total of 14,591 cases. South Sulawesi has 185 new cases and a total of 13,476 cases. Then, Central Java has 171 new cases and a total of 17,913 cases.