The Government Opens Up Opportunities To Use Hotels As Places Of Isolation For COVID-19 Patients

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The government opens the opportunity to convert state-owned hotels as isolation places for patients who are positively infected with the corona virus or COVID-19. This option will be realized if the patient escalation is higher and the referral hospital is unable to accommodate more patients.

Deputy for Political Communication and Information Dissemination at the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Juri Ardiantoro said that currently all infrastructure owned by the regional government, TNI, Polri and BUMN is being prepared to deal with the outbreak of a virus whose vaccine has not been found.

However, until now it is not certain how many hotel units owned by BUMN are being prepared by the government. Including how much the carrying capacity.

"State-owned enterprises have thought of turning their hotels into isolation areas if the escalation of these victims increases. The number is waiting for developments," said the jury during a Polemic discussion, Ibis Tamarin Hotel, Central Jakarta, Saturday, March 14.

The jury said, of course, handling the COVID-19 outbreak could not only be done by the central government or local governments. In a situation like this, it is necessary to have good coordination between all government agencies, especially regarding the data on the spread of this virus.

"Local government must be coordinated by the central government. So that the data that is owned will not have gaps or differences," he explained.

Meanwhile, Member of Commission IX of the DPR Saleh Daulay admitted that there had not been any discussion regarding the government's plan to use state-owned hotels as a place of isolation.

"Until now there has been no discussion. But I think more about how our government can increase the capacity of existing hospitals or add facilities," he said.

Meanwhile, to deal with this outbreak, the government has added to the list of hospitals that have become a reference for handling the corona virus. Currently, there are a total of 359 hospitals that can be used as a reference for handling COVID-19. This number increased by 227, from the previous 132 hospitals.

Based on data on developments in the handling of the virus outbreak until Friday, March 13, the government has announced 69 positive cases of COVID-19. Of these, four patients have died with identification cases number 25, 35, 36, 50.

Then, of the 69 cases there were five people who had been declared cured because the results of the examination showed negative COVID-19. The five patients were identified with case numbers 1, 3, 6, 14, and 19.

The latest update, positive cases of the corona virus or COVID-19 have increased again. The Government Spokesperson for the Handling of the Corona Virus, Achmad Yurianto, said that as of Saturday, March 14 afternoon, there were 96 positive cases of COVID-19.