JAKARTA – As the highly contagious Omicron variant might cause a rise in the number of Covid-19 patients, Indonesia has prepared 1,011 hospitals and 82,168 beds across the country, according to the Executive Office of the President of Indonesia (KSP).
KSP’s senior adviser Abraham Wirotomo said the government has prepared sufficient numbers of personal protective equipment, drugs and diagnostics, and other medical needs for the next three months.
“Given the fact that there might be more foreign travellers entering Indonesia in the upcoming months, the health services must be prepared for a possible Covid-19 surge,” he said in a statement.
He pointed out that several Covid-19 referral hospitals have tightened some visitation restrictions and limiting the hospitalisation of non-Covid-19 patients to prevent a sudden rise of coronavirus-related cases.
A total of 138 Omicron cases have been detected in the country so far, of which 135 cases were imported, while three were locally transmitted – one in Jakarta and two in Surabaya.
Indonesia became the epicentre of Asia’s Covid-19 pandemic, with 54,000 cases recorded in mid-July last year, but the pandemic now continued to trend down.
As of January 2, data compiled by Indonesia’s Covid-19 task force showed the number of confirmed positive cases declined to 174 from 274 the previous day to 4,263,168 cases.
As many as 165,900,8872 people have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccines, 114,103,362 their second dose, and 1,288,890 their third dose. – Bernama, January 3, 2022
