Jakarta to Put Up Tents to Accommodate Booming COVID-19 Patients

JAKARTADAILY.ID - Jakarta Vice Governor Ahmad Riza Patria said they are ready to prepare more tents to be used for additional beds for COVID-19 patients as the city sees a sudden spike in infection cases.

“If we are forced to put up tents we will be prepared. Insha Allah the system is already built, we only need to add the capacity,” Patria said Sunday, January 30, 2022, in South Jakarta.

Referring to the rise of Delta cases mid last year, the Jakarta government said they were ready to handle the COVID-19 boom at the start of this year.

The Head of Diseases Prevention and Control of the Jakarta Health Department Dwi Oktavia said the active cases in Jakarta have risen by 3,978 as of Saturday, January 29, 2022.

In total, there are currently 23,397 hospitalized or isolating COVID-19 patients or “active cases”.

Dwi stressed on 22,247 of them were transmitted locally, while the rest were transmitted by international travel.

In addition, there are 5,765 positive PCR tests as of last Saturday, making it to 901,471 of total cases in Indonesia. The patients were known to also be infected from the local transmission.

Dwi also pointed out the rise of the Omicron variant in Jakarta. Out of 2,525 of the infected, 1,373 of them just came back from international travel. While the other 1,152 were transmitted locally.

In a separate statement, Pangdam Jaya Mayjen TNI Untung Budiharto highlighted the increase of COVID-19 patients in RSDC Wisma Atlet Kemayoran. Untung said it leads to a necessity of a new location to handle the patients.

The Major General added there are currently 500 rooms in two Daan Mogot Flat Towers, and they will be prepared as an alternative isolating place for COVID-19 asymptomatic patients.

“These flats will be optimally prepared, in terms of security as well as infrastructure, thus it can be used as an alternative isolating place if RSCD Wisma Atlet Kemayoran and Wisma Atlet Pademangan can no longer receive patients,” Untung said.