BOR for COVID-19 Treatment in Jakarta Begins to Flatten: Health Ministry
Vice Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono delivering press statement on the emergency public activity restriction (PPKM) evaluation, Saturday (17/07/2021). (Source: Screenshot from the YouTube channel of Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs)
Bed occupancy rate (BOR) for COVID-19 treatment in capital Jakarta has begun to flatten, Vice Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono has announced.
“There is good news recently that hospital BOR has started to flatten in Jakarta. It may be caused by quite a significant addition of beds. And the number of hospital admissions in the next few days is expected to be not that big,” he said in a press statement on emergency public activity restriction (PPKM) evaluation, Saturday (17/07).
With Hajj Dormitory Hospital and additional beds in other hospitals, Dante pointed out, there is a total of 2,000 additional beds in the capital.
Ministry of Health, he added, is working with Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to build emergency hospitals in several regions across the country.
The Government, according to Dante, continues to ensure the availability of COVID-19 medicines by optimizing supplies from domestic pharmaceutical industry and importing three kinds of medicines, namely Remdesivir, Actemra, and Gammaraas.
“I can report that domestic medicine supplies are under control. We realize that there are imported medicines that are strictly (controlled) at the global level and the medicines include Remdesivir, Actemra, Gammaraas (IVig),” he said, adding that Remdesivir will be imported from India, Pakistan, and China, and Ministry of Health along with Ministry of Foreign Affairs have negotiated with India to allow export for the medicine once again.
“Approximately 50,000 vials have been received and there will be 50,000 more vials per week. We have also opened access to China so that medicines similar to Remdesivir can arrive here,” he said.
Dante also underscored that as for Actemra, the Government has acquired imports of 30,000 vials from China but more supplies are required to suffice the demands in Indonesia, adding that his Ministry has coordinated with the National Association of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to distribute medicines with enough supplies that are currently not commonly used to be evenly distributed across the country.
As for oxygen, Dante stated that with the exponential rise of COVID-19 cases, oxygen demands have increased fivefold up to approximately 400 tons per day, but Ministry of Health has taken measures to ensure the supplies.
“In cooperation with Ministry of Industry, we have re-converted the industry usage that used to take up a huge portion. 90 percent of oxygen is now used for medical needs, while the 10 percent is for industry demands,” he said, adding that his Ministry continues to cooperate with related stakeholders to ensure the oxygen distribution.
“We meet and distribute oxygen almost every day in accordance with our priorities. Additional oxygen distributed is very helpful. Therefore, we urge all hospitals to fill an online oxygen form in the hospital information system,” he said, adding that the online oxygen form in hospital information system is a digital form used to predict each hospital’s needs for oxygen, so it can be distributed optimally and according to plan
Furthermore, Dante stated that Ministry of Health also strives to provide approximately 20,000-30,000 oxygen concentrators.
“Oxygen concentrators will supply approximately 600 tons of oxygen per day. They will be needed. Oxygen concentrators can supply about 10 liters of oxygen per minute in isolation rooms and in treatment rooms of centralized isolation hospitals,” he said. (FID/UN) (DH/EP)
