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Kemayoran emergency hospital sees decrease in COVID-19 patients

The Wisma Atlet Kemayoran emergency hospital for COVID-19 patients in Central Jakarta has seen a decrease in the number of infected patients.

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, October 6, 2020

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Kemayoran emergency hospital sees decrease in COVID-19 patients A COVID-19 patient waits for an ambulance to take him to an emergency COVID-19 hospital in Jakarta, Sept. 10, 2020. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

The Wisma Atlet Kemayoran emergency hospital for COVID-19 patients in Central Jakarta has seen a decrease in the number of infected patients.

The makeshift hospital, which served as an athletes village for the 2018 Asian Games, is currently operating four towers to treat COVID-19 patients.

Tugas Ratmono, coordinator for the COVID-19 emergency hospital, said during a virtual discussion hosted by the national COVID-19 task force on Monday that apartment towers 4 and 5 were currently being used to treat asymptomatic patients.

As of Monday morning, the occupancy rates of towers 4 and 5 were 40 and 60 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the occupancy rates of towers 6 and 7, which are used to treat patients with moderate symptoms, have gone down to 59 and 66 percent.

“Previously, [the occupancy rates of all towers] could reach 90 percent,” Tugas explained.

He went on to say that the total number of infected patients in towers 4 and 5 was over 1,600 each, while towers 6 and 7 housed around 1,800 patients.

He explained that in past weeks, the numbers of patients staying in towers 4 and 5 had reached over 2,000.

Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) deputy chairman Slamet Budiarto said that it was hard to predict whether Indonesia had reached a peak in total number of coronavirus cases.

“Jakarta had the highest number of [COVID-19 cases] in March and April. But then East Java claimed the status. Now that East Java has seen a decreasing number of cases, Jakarta’s number has gone up again,” Slamet said.

As of Monday, Jakarta recorded a total of 80,036 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 65,295 recoveries and 1,772 deaths.

Read also: Indonesian health system might collapse soon: COVID-19 task force

On the decrease of the occupancy rate in the Wisma Atlet hospital, Tugas said that the availability of hotels that provided rooms for asymptomatic patients might be a contributing factor.

“Previously, people would directly go to Wisma Atlet for self-isolation, but now some may have gone to the hotels,” he said.

He also said that the lower rate of occupancy at Wisma Atlet had helped ease the burden of healthcare workers who were on duty at the emergency hospital. 

During the discussion, Slamet discussed the situation in other provinces.

He said that most doctors in other provinces complained about a lack of medicine, as opposed to fatigue. "They only complain when they're running out of medicine stocks," he said.  

Therefore, Slamet urged the government to provide the necessary supplies needed to treat COVID-19 patients, such as ventilators and medicines.

“The government has programs to decrease the numbers of infections and deaths. If the [doctors] are ready, but the medicines are unavailable, it’s going to disrupt the healthcare service,” he said.

Both Tugas and Slamet also encouraged the public to help flatten the curve by practicing the “3Ms” of health protocols: menggunakan masker (mask-wearing), mencuci tangan (handwashing) and menjaga jarak (social distancing). (jes)

 

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force (Satgas COVID-19) to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.

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