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Jakarta's COVID-19 self-isolation centers start to fill up
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More beds needed: A worker prepares rooms for COVID-19 patients at Graha Wisata Ragunan in South Jakarta on Tuesday. The Jakarta administration is preparing 76 rooms with a capacity for 152 patients. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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elf-isolation centers across the capital have started to fill up as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. In response, the city administration has prepared other locations as self-isolation centers, which are free to use.
Isolation centers in towers 4 and 5 of the former athletes village in Kemayoran – now an emergency hospital for COVID-19 patients in Central Jakarta – currently house 1,984 patients out of a capacity of 3,116, tempo.co reported on Friday.
Meanwhile, U Stay Hotel Mangga Besar in West Jakarta and Ibis Style Hotel Mangga Dua in Central Jakarta, which were turned into isolation centers on Sept. 27, have run out of vacant rooms to accommodate asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. The two hotels accommodate 140 and 212 people, respectively.
“The two hotels are fully occupied,” said the Health Agency’s public health unit head Fify Mulyani on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
The Health Agency previously reported that almost half of all COVID-19 patients in the capital are asymptomatic
Fify said around 45 percent of confirmed patients in Jakarta showed no symptoms at all. “Meanwhile, 40 percent show moderate symptoms and the other 15 percent develop severe symptoms,” Fify.
Previously, national COVID-19 task force chief Doni Monardo also warned that a person could carry the virus without knowing it and end up transmitting it to their family members and those closest to them.
“COVID-19 is dangerous. But, the humans who carry COVID-19 are far more dangerous,” Doni said.
As tracing asymptomatic cases is difficult, the Jakarta administration decided to change its strategy by imposing controlled self-isolation for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in mid-September. The administration has previously banned self-isolation at home, as it had caused new clusters to emerge, but shortly changed the policy.
Currently, towers 4, 5 and 8 of the Kemayoran athletes village and the Ibis Style Hotel, U Style Hotel and Ibis Senen Hotel have been designated as self-isolation centers. The Jakarta administration is currently preparing the Jakarta Islamic Center in North Jakarta, Graha Wisata at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta and Graha Wisata Ragunan at Jaya Raya Ragunan Sports Center in South Jakarta.
Health official Widyastuti explained that asymptomatic patients would stay at the Kemayoran isolation center, while patients with mild to moderate symptoms would be treated at the athlete’s village COVID-19 emergency hospital.
“Confirmed asymptomatic COVID-19 patients have to obtain a recommendation letter from a hospital, community health center, or doctor to isolate for 10 days. Moreover, the patient is required to sign a statement of consent to carry out isolation at the controlled isolation centers,” she said.
As of Friday, Indonesia’s COVID-19 case tally was near 300,000, with more than 79,000 cases having been recorded in the capital city, the epicenter of the outbreak. (Iwa)
