West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil has urged all hospitals in the province to implement alert level 1 amid the increasing bed occupancy rate (BOR) for COVID-19 patients.
“I have instructed all hospitals to implement alert level 1 because the BOR is increasing,” Kamil noted in his official statement here on Friday.
The governor remarked that the alert level should be implemented by increasing the number of patient beds, oxygen cylinders, and medicine availability.
“Increase (the number of) beds and prepare oxygen as well as the treatment,” he remarked.
He explained that the level 1 alert is implemented, especially in agglomeration areas, such as Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, and Greater Bandung, as those regions recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases.
“We are encouraging hospitals in those agglomeration areas to be prepared,” he remarked.
By quoting Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Kamil noted that the Omicron variant is more transmissible, but the patients would recover quicker in around three to four days.
To this end, he urged people, who had contracted the Omicron variant and were experiencing mild symptoms, to conduct self-isolation at home with adequate supervision and medicine availability.
He noted that treatment at hospitals is prioritized for patients with severe symptoms. He added that treatment outside hospitals would positively impact the bed occupancy in hospitals.
The governor appealed to the community to continue to comply with the health protocols in conducting their activities over the lack of certainty regarding when the pandemic will end.
“Health protocols must not be ignored, so that we do not lose to the pandemic that has not ended,” he remarked.
He highlighted the importance of alertness while stressing that the people, should not underestimate the virus transmission.
The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data provided by the task force, as of February 4, 2022, at least 4,446,694 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country, while 4,161,987 people have recovered, and 144,453 people have succumbed to the virus.
Source: Antara News