PPNI: 180 Nurses In Surabaya Exposed To COVID-19 Variant Omicron

ILLUSTRA TION BY VOI

SURABAYA - The Regional Board of the Indonesian National Nurses Association of Surabaya City revealed that 180 nurses in the City of Heroes had been exposed to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 during the period from January to February 19, 2022.

"From those who were exposed, thank God no one died," said the Chair of the Regional Board of the Indonesian National Nurses Association (PPNI) for the City of Surabaya, Ns Nuh Huda, after the inauguration of the management for the 2022-2027 period in Surabaya, East Java, reported by Antara, Saturday, February 19.

Based on data held by PPNI, from July 2020 to December 2021, 39 nurses died due to COVID-19.

He believes there will be an increase in nurses who are self-isolating because the spread of the Omicron variant is very fast.

However, said Huda, the public need not worry because it is ready to mobilize the assistance of health workers from educational institutions.

According to him, it is possible for nurses to be infected from work or hospitals, or from outside or visiting crowds.

"I have asked nurses to remain professional at work, even though the current nurse-to-patient ratio is not ideal," he said.

According to him, ideally the need for nurses is one in three (1:3) so that his party has prepared backup staff from the final level educational institution or the nursing profession at the final level.

He detailed that there are 10 nursing education institutions in Surabaya assuming 200 people each, so that there are 2,000 backup personnel that can be deployed, because according to the Permenkes they can be used as volunteers if needed.

"We have also coordinated how many workers are needed and the certainty of the number of backup personnel that PPNI can mobilize," he said.

Huda expects the assistance, moral support and welfare of nurses from the Surabaya City Government.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Surabaya, from July 2020 to December 2021, a total of 1,686 nurses were exposed.

"DPD last period also provided compensation to nurses who died while carrying out their duties to handle COVID-19. The total amount of affection for nurses who died while on duty to handle COVID-19 reached Rp650 million for 33 heirs," he said.