Add 26 New Cases Of COVID-19, Hospitals In Wondama West Papua Overcome Lack Of Beds

Illustration - Nakes of Wondama Bay district while receiving the COVID -19 vaccine. ANTARA/Ernes Kakisina

WEST PAPUA - COVID-19 cases in Teluk Wondama district, West Papua Province, experienced a sharp spike in the last few days. The high number of COVID-19 patients was triggered by the company's new cluster or the Kambi cluster.

Doctor staff at Teluk Wondama Hospital, Dr. Lenny Awom, said that his party had found 26 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 originating from the Kambi cluster.

All of them are company employees who are working on the Trans Papua Barat Road project in the Naikere District area.

He said, based on data from the COVID-19 Task Force until June 19, 2021, there were 48 active cases of COVID-19. Where 14 new cases were found on June 19.

According to him, the additional number of new cases made the isolation room for COVID-19 patients at the Wondama Manggurai Sasar Building, Wasior, which has 24 beds filled.

Doctors are even forced to choose which patients should be treated and which should be sent home to self-isolate.

Therefore, he hopes for the cooperation of all parties to reduce the number of COVID-19 spikes by implementing health protocols as recommended by the government.

"If cases continue to increase, the task force and even the hospital will be overwhelmed to quarantine patients", he said in Wasior as reported by Antara, Monday, June 21.

Lenny said that in the past few days his party had been forced to return several patients with mild symptoms so that the place could be used by new patients with moderate and severe symptoms. It is also preparing an additional isolation room at the hospital.

Due to this condition, Deputy Regent Andarias Kayukatuy together with Regional Secretary Denny Simbar ordered that the isolation room at Teluk Wondama Hospital be prepared immediately so that it could accommodate newly discovered COVID-19 patients.

“This means we have an emergency treatment room. So hopefully the isolation room at the hospital can be immediately prepared to accommodate new patients. We will also prepare the BKD guesthouse to be able to accommodate positive asymptomatic patients", said the Regional Secretary.

The Deputy Regent also hopes that the surge in new cases will make all parties, especially the public, more vigilant and comply with health protocols.

The Deputy Regent asked the COVID-19 Task Force starting from the village level to reactivate coronavirus prevention activities.

“There are enough cases so there needs to be a special policy to suppress the spike by educating the public. I hope that all of us are committed to being able to suppress implementing strict health protocols", he added