COVID-19 Cases Soar, Gresik Regent Asked For Lockdown On Bawean Island, Hospital Lacks Oxygen

ILLUSTRA TION / VOI

GRESIK - The spike in COVID-19 cases on Bawean Island, Gresik Regency, East Java, attracted the attention of a member of the Gresik Regional House of Representatives, Bustami Khazin. The politician from Bawean also asked the Gresik Regency Government to implement a local lockdown.

"The local lockdown is to limit people's mobility to Bawean. That's why we ask the Gresik Regent to tighten access to Bawean or implement a lockdown policy in Bawean", said Bustami, Thursday, July 1.

The PKB politician is optimistic that the local lockdown can neutralize COVID-19 cases in Bawean. Unfortunately, Bustami did not mention detailed data on the spread of COVID-19 cases in Bawean.

"The recent case of COVID-19 in Bawean is very concerning. In addition to the lack of human resources for health workers, the lack of medical equipment, even the availability of Antigen Swab equipment is starting to become difficult to obtain", he said.

Bustami admitted that he received a lot of input, both from the Bawean community, and even health workers. He said they hoped the Gresik Regent would carry out a local lockdown for one to two weeks.

"God willing, with the local lockdown, the COVID-19 case in Bawean can be neutralized, because it is indeed a small scope", he said.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Umar Masud Hospital on Bawean Island, Tony S Hartanto, admitted that the local hospital lacked oxygen for COVID-19 positive patients. This is necessary because most patients exposed to COVID-19 in Bawean have symptoms of shortness of breath.

Meanwhile, the delivery of oxygen is constrained by sea transportation. Currently, there is only one ship operating, namely the Express Bahari passenger ship.

"The problem now is transportation, there is no Gili Iyang ship yet because only passenger ships operate", he said.

Toni said that eight COVID-19 patients died at the Umar Masud Hospital. That number does not include patients who died after self-isolation.

"Now there are still three patients who are still being treated, with stable conditions", he said.

Data on the accumulation of COVID-19 cases in Gresik, cumulatively there were 5,991 people exposed to COVID-19. In detail, 5,399 people have recovered, 223 are still in self-isolation/treatment, and 369 people have died.