Imam Hamdi, Jakarta – Epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia, Pandu Riono, argued that Covid-19 referral hospitals across Jakarta and its surrounding regions have already collapsed.

"Patients die before they get health care because hospitals are full. This means, our health facilities have collapsed," said Pandu on Wednesday, Jan. 20.

Many referral hospitals have exceeded their capacity to handle patients diagnosed with the coronavirus disease, he added. The government should address the issue as it would potentially increase the number of deaths due to the pandemic.

"If hospitals collapse, the death number will highly increase," said Pandu, expressing worry that in the near future, there would be similar bad news.

The epidemiologist suggested the government add isolation rooms and ICUs to anticipate the soaring number of infections.

As reported on the corona.jakarta.go.id site, the Jakarta government has buried 12,683 bodies under the Covid-19 protocol as of Tuesday, Jan. 19. Of the figures, 3,836 were positive cases, 2,311 were suspect cases, 5,333 were probable cases, and one discarded case.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1425018/jakarta-covid-19-referral-hospitals-collapse-epidemiologis