150 Thousand Masks Distributed By The Government To Fight COVID-19

Illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for handling COVID-19, Achmad Yurianto, said the central government has sent logistics for medical personnel in a number of regions in Indonesia.

Logistics in the form of personal protective equipment (PPE) and masks for medical personnel in clinics, health centers and hospitals were sent from DKI Jakarta to Batam, Tanjung Pinang, Medan, Banda Aceh, Balikpapan, Tarakan, Gorontalo Manado, Palu, Pontianak, Palangkaraya and Banjarmasin. .

"The number ranges from 5 thousand to 7 thousand pieces of PPE and masks ranging from 20 thousand to 150 thousand," said Yurianto in an online press conference broadcast on BNPB's YouTube account, Saturday, April 4.

Regarding the use of masks, the Head of the Expert Team for the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19, Wiku Adisasmito, said there were three masks that could be used to ward off the virus. The three types are cloth masks, surgical masks and N95 masks.

For medical workers who work with patients with infections including COVID-95, ideally, using a mask of the N95 type. While cloth masks can be used for those who are sick or other health workers.

"For doctors and dental nurses it is emphasized to use masks with the N95 type. We know that several dentists have died, therefore it is recommended to use N95 masks," explained Wiku.

As for cloth masks, people can use them when in public places or when interacting with other people.

"This mask can be made of at least three layers of cloth that can be used by the public, and when it starts getting wet, it can be replaced," he said.

To help reduce the spread of this disease, Wiku then invited the public to share cloth masks with others.

"People can give each other cloth masks as a form of solidarity. Let's protect ourselves and others," said the Professor of the Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia.

Previously reported, for handling COVID-19 cases in Indonesia, the government has provided 4 thousand rooms to deal with the outbreak.

This figure includes the Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital, Kemayoran, Jakarta, which has a capacity of 3 thousand rooms and currently 500 rooms are used.

Apart from the matter of rooms that have been prepared, to look after health workers, there are around 300 thousand personal protective equipment (PPE) that have been distributed throughout Indonesia.

For the DKI Jakarta area, the government said that it had sent an additional 85 thousand PPE specifically for handling COVID-19.

Then PPE was also distributed to West Java as much as 55 thousand, East Java as much as 25 thousand, Special Region of Yogyakarta as much as 10 thousand, Bali as much as 12,500, then Banten as much as 10 thousand.

Furthermore, outside Java and Bali, the government stated that it had distributed more than 5 thousand PPE to each province in Indonesia.