Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – Indonesia is currently facing a Covid-19 infections surge fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, but the Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that the hospitalization figures remained under control.

Indonesia broke its daily case count with 57,049 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday. The previous record was 56,757 confirmed cases on July 15 2021, during which Indonesia was battling with the Delta variant. Daily tallies in a number of regions also surpassed the Delta peak on Tuesday.

Despite the current case surges, the government affirms that the bed occupancy rate is still low.

According to the Health Ministry, the bed occupancy rate in hospitals nationwide currently stands at 33 percent, with 30,412 out of 91,018 beds occupied as of Tuesday 12 p.m. Government data shows that patients are occupying 2,096 out of 8,487 intensive care unit (ICU) beds, marking a 25 percent ICU occupancy.

Indonesia is also equipping its hospitals with more beds. Bed availability for Covid-19 patients has increased from 88,485 to 91,018.

The Health Ministry said that no region in Indonesia has beds and ICU occupancy at 60 percent.

In Jakarta, out of the 15,313 isolation beds, only 54.9 percent have been occupied. Jakarta's ICU occupancy rate is at 44.1 percent out of 921 ICU beds. This is a stark contrast to the Delta peak, during which Jakarta had 18,824 patients undergoing treatment at hospitals.

"Once again, we urge asymptomatic patients and those with mild symptoms to self-isolate or isolate at isolation centers," Siti Nadia Tarmizi, the Covid-19 vaccination spokeswoman at the Health Ministry, said in a press statement on Tuesday.

"Let us help those who are in great need of intensive care [at hospitals], as they suffer from moderate to severe symptoms, in critical conditions, have comorbidities," she added.

As of Feb. 13, 4,037 out of the 20,920 patients undergoing hospital treatment are asymptomatic. About 9,664 have mild symptoms. This means that 65.49 percent of the hospitalized patients can self-isolate at home or at isolation centers.

Telemedicine

Indonesia is ramping up its telemedicine services for self-isolating patients to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. But the government data shows that not many self-isolating patients are using the telemedicine services.

Between Jan. 17 to Feb. 13 2022, only 130,346 of the 346,930 Covid-infected patients are using telemedicine services, marking a 38 percent usage.

According to the Health Ministry, 97 percent have had remote consultations with doctors and gotten their electronic prescriptions. Some 85 percent have gotten the free medicines from the Health Ministry on the same day or a day later. Fourteen percent received the free medicines two days later, whereas the remaining 1 percent had to wait for three days.

The government aims to have the medicines delivered to the patients a day later at the latest.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/despite-case-surge-bed-occupancy-rate-remains-low-gov