The Yogyakarta COVID-19 Patient Isolation Shelter In Bener Flats Is Almost Full

YOGYAKARTA - The shelter for handling COVID-19 patients in Yogyakarta in Tower One Flat (Rusunawa) in Bener is almost completely filled along with the increasing number of confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in the city in the last few days.

“All units in the flats are fully occupied. Some are filled with one person per unit, but some are filled with two or three people because they come from the same family," said Head of the Referral Health Service Section of the Yogyakarta City Health Service, Okto Heru Santosa, quoted by Antara, Thursday, February 17.

Each unit in the Rusunawa has two rooms so that it can accommodate at least two patients to undergo isolation or the total shelter capacity reaches 84 beds.

However, not all units can be filled with up to two patients at once because patient placement must be done selectively, one of which is laboratory results obtained on the same day.

"For example, today there will be five patients. It is not certain that the laboratory results of these five patients will come out on the same day, so they cannot be placed in the same unit," he said.

However, he continued, in one unit it can also be used by patients who come from the same family or from the same boarding house and dormitory.

Okto said that the capacity in the isolation shelter began to fill up since last weekend, leaving only one or two empty units, but since Wednesday, February 16, all units have been filled with patients.

In order to meet the need for integrated isolation, shelter operations are currently being prepared at Rusunawa Gemawang. “It's just that, there are obstacles in the water quality which is not good. Now it is being handled by friends from the competent authorities," he said.

The Gemawang shelter was operational at the peak of Delta's cases last year and then began to be decommissioned in November 2021 due to sloping cases and no more patients in the shelter.

As for the operation of Tower Two Rusunawa Bener as an additional shelter, Okto said, it still requires some additional preparations such as room equipment and CCTV.

"The condition of the building in Tower Two is already ready. While waiting for everything to be ready, we will operate the Gemawang Shelter. Hopefully, the water quality can be restored as soon as possible," he said.

On Wednesday, February 16, there were an additional 425 new cases of COVID-19 in the city of Yogyakarta with 43 patients recovering or completing isolation and no patient dying. Thus, there are 2.334 active cases in the city.

The Daily Head of the Yogyakarta City COVID-19 Handling Task Force Heroe Poerwadi estimates that the number of cases will continue to increase in the next one to two weeks.