Good News, West Sumatra Provincial Government Forms Oxygen Task Force

The threat of oxygen scarcity has prompted the West Sumatra Provincial Government to form an Oxygen Task Force. (Doc. West Sumatra Provincial Government)

JAKARTA - At least this news can calm patients or their families who have been exposed to COVID-19. The problem is that for medical oxygen matters, you can contact the newly formed Oxygen Task Force to overcome the recent shortage of oxygen. This oxygen requirement is supplied from South Sumatra.

This was reported by the West Sumatra Communications and Information Service regarding the formation of this Oxygen Task Force. The West Sumatra Provincial Government continues to strive to overcome various obstacles in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them is to meet the growing demand for oxygen. The good news is that the Provincial Government of South Sumatra (Sumsel), is willing to help whatever the needs of West Sumatra, but they are still having problems with pick-up transportation.

The Governor of West Sumatra (West Sumatra) Buya Mahyeldi, confirmed that two neighboring provinces, namely Riau and North Sumatra, also expressed their willingness to help supply oxygen for West Sumatra.

"Earlier, I have communicated with the governors of all Sumatra virtually and Alhamdulillah, the provinces of Riau, South Sumatra, and North Sumatra will provide assistance to West Sumatra. Even South Sumatra can provide whatever is needed, we just have to pick them up. Earlier I asked the relevant agencies directly, such as trade, transportation, and BPBD to facilitate this," said Mahyeldi, during a visit to the Pariaman City Regional General Hospital (RSUD), Wednesday, July 28.

For assistance from the neighboring province, the Governor expressed his gratitude for being willing to provide oxygen to the Province of West Sumatra, because West Sumatra is very short of oxygen. This assistance, said Buya Mahyeldi, will save thousands of lives of COVID-19 patients in West Sumatra spread across 19 regencies/cities.

Previously, the Head of the West Sumatra Health Service, Arry Yuswandi, said the West Sumatra Provincial Government had also taken a strategic step by forming a West Sumatra Oxygen Task Force (Satgas) which would focus on oxygen issues. This includes planning to pick up oxygen supplies from neighboring provinces.

"For oxygen, our supply is indeed lacking, not only us. But almost all regions, especially in Java. So our step is to prepare the West Sumatra Oxygen Task Force, just waiting for the decree and the coordinator, Mr. regional Secretary," said Head of the Health Service, Arry Yuswandy.

"Currently our needs are 500 thousand cubic feet per month. But along with the addition of covid isolation facilities at the Padang Haji Dormitory and Padang Pariaman Lung Hospital, the need of course also increases. So we continue to calculate how much our real needs are, let alone there are still many COVID-19 referral facilities who have not provided the data," said Arry.

Meanwhile, according to Arry, the current supply of vaccines for West Sumatra is at zero, aka empty. He said, all existing vaccines have been distributed to all districts and cities. So that the remaining vaccines in health facilities and city districts are still being used today. "We have asked, and the Ministry of Health has also given attention, but this July it is not possible to distribute it. It was promised in August," said Arry.

It is hoped that the formation of this Oxygen Task Force can help people who are exposed to COVID-19.