Bed Occupancy Rate Still Under Control: Health Minister
Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin (Photo: PR documentation)
The bed occupancy rate in hospitals is still under control despite the country’s recent surge in COVID-19 cases of Omicron variant, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin has announced.
“Don’t need to panic since the rate of hospital occupancy and death is low and can still be controlled,” Budi said in a press statement after attending a limited cabinet meeting on the evaluation of public activity restrictions (PPKM) via video conference, Monday (02/07).
As of February 6, the Minister continued, 18,966 of 120 thousand beds for COVID-19 patients are occupied. A total of 15,292 or 81 percent were confirmed COVID-19 patients and 3,674 or 19 percent were probable COVID-19 patients.
“Of the 15 thousand, 10 thousand are asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients. In the future, if the asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients carry out self-isolation at home or in a centralized isolation facility, the occupancy of hospital is still very low,” Budi said.
Meanwhile, of the 356 COVID-19 patients who died since January 21, 42 percent have comorbidities, 44 percent are elderly people, and 69 percent have not been fully vaccinated. As for the 58 hospital-treated patients with severe/critical symptoms, 60 percent of them have not received complete vaccinations.
“People who have not yet received vaccinations, especially the elderly, must be vaccinated immediately. For those who have not received the second dose of vaccination, please complete the vaccination immediately since the vaccine can provide protection for us all,” the Minister added.
Budi Gunadi further said that there are three provinces experiencing a rise in positive cases exceeding the last Delta variant wave, namely DKI Jakarta, Banten, and Bali, for instance, Omicron’s daily confirmation in DKI Jakarta province on February 6 has reached 15,800 cases, while the highest number of Delta variant in the province was only 14,600 cases.
“Still, the hospitalized COVID-19 patients at three provinces are still around 30 percent to 50 percent,” he added.
In the meantime, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stated that the Government has taken measures to speed up vaccination drive for the elderly and vulnerable groups as well as providing booster shots for all Indonesians.
Luhut further said that the Government also encourages asymptomatic and mild symptomatic patients to undergo isolation in centralized isolation facilities or to self-isolate at home and use telemedicine services for consultation.
Starting this week, the Government will expand the telemedicine services currently implemented in Jakarta to six other regions, namely Greater Bandung, Greater Semarang, Greater Solo, Special Region of Yogyakarta, Greater Malang, and Denpasar, he added. (MAY/TGH/AIT/JW/UN) (GWH/MMB)
