Gov’t Prepares Hajj’s Dormitory as Emergency Hospital Amid Surge in COVID-19 Cases

Minister of Health Budi Sadikin delivers press statement after a limited meeting on COVID-19 Handling, virtually, Tuesday (6/7). (Photo: Agung/PR)

The Government has announced it is preparing Hajj’s dormitory in East Jakarta as an emergency hospital to treat COVID-19 patients amid surge in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.

The dorm has 950 beds.

“We hope the preparation (of providing beds in the dorm) can be finalized in the next two days so that we can have additional 900 beds. There will also be 50 ICU beds in collaboration with Ministry of State-owned Enterprises,” Minister of Health Budi Gunadi said, Tuesday (06/07).

The Government has also added the capacity of Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital and other centralized isolation places in Nagrak flat and Pasar Rumput flat, Budi added.

“That way, we can accommodate the patients in centralized isolation beds or in hospital beds. There are currently around 7,000 centralized isolation beds and there will be another 950 hospital beds,” he said.

Budi also pointed out that the Government is also preparing support for COVID-19 patients who are carrying out self-isolation through telemedicine services organized by Ministry of Health in collaboration with eleven telemedicine platforms.

The service, he added, is currently only available in capital Jakarta.

“The Government is working with eleven telemedicine platforms so that those carrying out self-isolation can have access to online consultation with doctors and get free medicine services from Ministry of Health. This also applies for people who test positive for COVID-19 confirmed in Ministry of Health’s lab database. Both the telemedicine service and the medicine are free of charge,” he said.

The Minister also underscored that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has ordered that measures to handle COVID-19 such as increasing hospital capacity, providing centralized isolation places, and supporting COVID-19 patients be implemented in other regions as well.

“We will replicate this strategy, whether in terms of additional hospitals, isolation beds or self-isolation in other regions as ordered by the President. I’d also like to express appreciation for West Java regional government who has been implementing this strategy. We hope similar measures can also be taken in other regions,” he remarked. (TGH/UN) (EST/EP)