Gov’t Urges Hospitals to Prepare Contingency Measures for Omicron Variant

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The Government pushed for hospitals across the country to prepare contingency measures so that hospital capacity will be sufficient to accommodate COVID-19 patients, Spokesperson for the COVID-19 National Task Force Wiku Adisasmito said.

This came following the first case of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

“The Government urges hospitals throughout the country to prepare contingency measures, namely converting more hospital beds [into isolation and intensive care unit beds] for COVID-19 services if the occupancy rate has exceeded 60 percent of the maximum capacity,” Wiku said in a virtual press statement, Thursday (12/23).

Based on data as of 19 December 2021, Wiku said that the national bed occupancy rate (BOR) for isolation and intensive care unit in COVID-19 referral hospitals stood at 2.73 percent.

“In fact, the occupancy rate in each province stood below 30 percent. Thus, we can conclude that healthcare service in hospitals is still under control and there is no increase in medical treatment due to the spike in cases,” he said.

To date, Wiku continued, as many as eight positive cases have been identified due to the Omicron variant which was detected through the screening at the arrival terminal.

Those confirmed positive with the Omicron variant have been quarantined and handled by professional health workers.

“If the result is negative after undergoing mandatory quarantine, the survivor will no longer be able to spread the virus to other people,” he added.

On that occasion, Wiku also said that vigilance must be increased since people infected with the Omicron variant can merely have mild symptoms or even asymptomatic.

“To that end, testing, tracing, and quarantine measures are the keys to monitoring cases properly so that they can be handled immediately and will not cause widespread transmission in the communities,” he remarked. (Communication Team of KPCPEN/UN) (RIF/MUR)