Pelni Ship Assistance Of The Ministry Of Transportation For The Isolation Of COVID-19 Patients Arrives In Makassar

The PT Pelni Indonesia ship, aided by the Ministry of Transportation to be used as a place to isolate COVID-19 patients, has arrived in Makassar. (AMONG)

MAKASSAR - The PT Pelni Indonesia ship, aided by the Ministry of Transportation to be used as a place to isolate COVID-19 patients, has arrived in Makassar. The ship rests between Lae-lae Island and Makassar Soekarno-Hatta Port.

Makassar Mayor Moh Ramdhan Pomanto said the PT Pelni ship had finally arrived after he previously wrote to the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi to ask for permission to use one of the ships to serve as a place of isolation.

"Initially, I coordinated with PT Pelni to ask about the fleet of ships and it turned out that many were not operating, so I also asked to be assisted in dealing with COVID-19 in Makassar," said the man who is familiarly called Danny Pomanto, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, July 13.

Danny Pomanto admitted that this floating isolation is the first in Indonesia because no one has used sailing ships as a place of isolation.

He said the floating isolation on the ship would help patients a lot because apart from being able to breathe fresh air, the sea water can also help speed up the healing process for patients.

"Compared to isolation in hotels or guesthouses, isolation on ships that are above the sea will speed up the healing process because the air is fresh, seawater can also help," said Danny Pomanto.

According to him, the city-scale floating integrated isolation is the concept of self-isolation for the first COVID-19 patient in Indonesia. In fact, to his knowledge, it has never been done in other big cities abroad.

The prepared passenger ship's capacity is about 900 beds. This passenger ship is a passenger ship owned by PT Pelni whose operations have been temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ship which is used as an integrated floating isolation will be placed around Losari Beach-CPI, to make it easier for the Makassar City Government to supervise and distribute food and medicine for positive patients participating in the Makassar Recover program of self-isolation.

"As a result of the discussion with PT Pelni, we will also involve elements of the TNI-Polri in this program," said Danny Pomanto.