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Bandung hospital flooded with requests for 'COVID-19-free certificate'
The hospital has categorically stated that it cannot issue a "coronavirus-free certificate" because it does not exist.
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The medical officer took the patient to the isolation room during a simulation of corona virus patients in Hasan Sadikin Hospital, Bandung, West Java, Friday (6/3/2020). (Antara/M Agung Rajasa)
H
asan Sadikin Hospital in Bandung, the largest hospital in West Java province, has been flooded by people asking its staff to issue them a "COVID-19-free certificate", despite the fact that the document does not exist.
“There is no such thing. It is not permitted,” the hospital's president director, Nina Susana Dewi, said on Wednesday.
Nina said that the majority of people requesting the nonexistent document had come in for a checkup after returning from abroad, especially those who had traveled to countries with confirmed COVID-19 cases.
“There are also people who request such a certificate because they want to go abroad,” said Nina.
Read also: West Java Health Agency faces troubles in tracing COVID-19 spread
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 114 countries and territories across the globe had confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection by Wednesday.
Nina said that the hospital continued to provide checkups at its general consultation unit or infectious diseases unit. If the checkup showed that the individual was in good condition, the hospital would issue a general medical certificate of good health, but could not specifically mention COVID-19.
People who had returned from affected countries were also welcome at the hospital, she added. Even if they were found to be healthy, the hospital would still place them on its monitoring list as a precaution.
People who showed flu-like symptoms – including but not limited to fever, coughing and sore throat – would be advised to self-isolate at home and contact the West Java COVID-19 information and coordination center's 119 hotline to report their daily condition.
Nina said the hospital maintained a record of people with a travel history to affected countries as part of its protocol, and that it advised them to return "for another checkup 14 days after their arrival in Indonesia". (gis)
