Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Jakarta provincial government has designated 14 hospitals in South Jakarta as COVID-19 referral hospitals in the wake of mounting infection rates in the capital city.
To this end, all non-COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized at the designated hospitals would be transferred to other hospitals, Head of the South Jakarta Health Office Muhammad Helmy stated here on Saturday.
The non-referral hospitals were demanded to step-up room capacity to accommodate patients from designated hospitals, he remarked.
Helmy noted that four of the 14 designated hospitals -- the Pasar Minggu, Jati Padang, Kebayoran Lama, Kebayoran Baru public hospitals -- are owned by the South Jakarta city administration.
The 10 others -- Pondok Indah, MMC, Medistra, Siloam Mampang Prapatan, Mayapada, Prikasih, Andhika, Bhayangkara Sespimma Polri, DR Suyoto Pusrehah Kemhan, Pertamina, and Fatmawati hospitals -- belong to the private sector, military, police, state-owned company, and government agencies.
With these 14 designated hospitals, the capital city has, so far, 59 COVID-19 referral hospitals, he remarked.
A worrisome trend has arisen in the past two weeks for Indonesia that has been battling to flatten its coronavirus curve since March 2020.
The country witnessed a spike in COVID-19 infection rates, with the addition of over three thousand new cases daily. Furthermore, over 100 frontline doctors have succumbed to the infection.
On September 3, 2020, for instance, 3,622 new cases were reported over a 24-hour period, while on September 8, Indonesia had recorded 3,046 fresh infections, thereby pushing the total tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 200,035.
In dealing with the soaring number of new confirmed cases, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan declared the re-enforcement of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) that would come into effect from Sept 14, 2020, based on the emergency COVID-19 situation in the capital city.
Meanwhile, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) renewed calls for his Indonesia Onward Cabinet's members to adopt requisite measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 emerging from office, family, and regional election clusters.
"Be cautious of office, family, and later, regional election clusters of COVID-19. Please repeatedly remind about this aspect," Jokowi stated at a cabinet meeting on handling health and economic recovery issues to strengthen reformation early this week.
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