Erlang Samoedro has been a doctor for 10 years. Until recently, he thought he had seen it all.

But he was not prepared for the new and deadlier wave of COVID-19 that has swept the country, fueled by increased mobility around the Idul Fitri holidays and the emergence of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. Nor did he foresee the heavy toll the coronavirus has taken his colleagues, as record-breaking COVID-19 hospitalizations have overwhelmed health services.

“We are extremely exhausted,” Erlang, a pulmonologist at Persahabatan Central General Hospital (RSUP Persahabatan) in Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday. “Patients keep coming, while almost half of our colleagues have fallen ill.”

On Thursday, the country recorded 24,836 new COVID-19 cases, the highest number since the pandemic began. New daily cases have soared above 20,000 for five days in a row, with Jakarta, West Java and Central Java accounting for the largest shares.

All provinces in Java except East Java have reported alarming hospital bed occupancy rates of above 87 percent during the second infection wave, which killed almost 8,000 people in June alone.

Read also: Hospitals ‘collapse’ as second wave engulfs Indonesia

Seeing their colleagues fall ill has taken an emotional toll on many health workers and has worsened fears of contracting the virus.

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