End Of Year Holidays End, ICU Rooms And Isolation For COVID-19 Soaring

COVID-19 Task Force Spokesman Wiku Adisasmito (Photo: BNPB doc)

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the Task Force for Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said that the level of occupancy in the intensive care unit (ICU) and isolation in hospitals in Indonesia is increasing and tends to be worrying. This increase occurred after the Christmas and New Year 2021 holidays yesterday.

"The condition of the occupancy of beds in the ICU and isolation rooms in Indonesia, if seen from the national development trend, is increasing and worrying," Wiku said in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Tuesday, January 5.

He even said that there were a number of areas where beds in the ICU were filled and the isolation was more than 70 percent.

"In some areas the occupancy of beds for ICU and isolation as of January 2 has exceeded 70 percent and this includes DKI Jakarta, Banten, Yogyakarta, West Java, West Sulawesi, East Java, Central Java, South Sulawesi and Sulawesi. Middle, "he said.

This condition, he continued, should be an alarm for all parties if the situation where the spread of COVID-19 has entered into a state of emergency which is marked by the availability of dwindling beds. Although currently there are still a number of beds that can be used by COVID-19 patients, this does not mean that they can be used just like that because this use needs to be supported by the presence of health workers.

"It should be understood that there are still only a few beds left for COVID-19 patients. This is not necessarily usable because of the limited number of health workers," he said.

"Moreover, until now there have been 237 doctors who died in which the trend of the number has continued to increase since October, especially in December," he added.

Seeing this situation, Wiku then asked the public to comply with existing health protocols such as wearing masks, maintaining distance, washing hands and avoiding crowds. "If people continue to ignore and leave new cases there will not be enough health facilities for us to be able to handle it," he said.

Previously reported, until now the addition of new cases is still happening. Most recently, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) released the latest additional positive cases of COVID-19 today. A total of 60,520 specimens were examined with 7,445 new positive cases of COVID-19.

"The total accumulation of positive cases since COVID-19 was discovered in Indonesia has reached 779,548 people," the Ministry of Health was quoted as saying, Tuesday, January 5.

Cases recovered today have increased by 6,643 so that a total of 645,746 people have recovered. Then, the positive confirmed cases who died increased by 198 people and a total of 23,109 people.

The province with the most new cases is in DKI Jakarta with 1,824 new cases and a total of 192,899 cases. DKI Jakarta is also the province with the most accumulated cases in Indonesia.

Followed by West Java which has 1,100 new cases with a total of 89,661 cases. Central Java has 996 new cases and a total of 86,545 cases. Then, East Java has 727 new cases and a total of 87,797 cases.

Finally, the number of people suspected of having contracted COVID-19 or who are currently categorized as suspected cases, was recorded at 70,201 people. Currently, 510 districts / cities from 34 provinces have cases of COVID-19.