TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Covid-19 referral hospitals in Tangerang Regency are now filled with patients. The local Department of Housing, Settlements and Cemeteries noted that over the past week 22 people have died from the coronavirus.

Hendra Tarmizi, the spokesman of the Tangerang Regency's Covid-19 Task Force, said that the situation has come to an emergency.

"Everything has become an emergency, the rooms are (fully) occupied," Hendra told Tempo on Friday, January 8.

One of the Covid-19 patients told Tempo that there have been long queues at the hospitals over the last few days. Including in a private referral hospital, many patients can't get rooms, do not get treatment rooms, and are lining up at the ER.

The quarantine shelter for Covid-19 positives at Hotel Yasmin, Curug, Hendra said, has also exceeded its capacity. The 180 rooms available are forced to take in 206 people.

Iwan Firmansyah, head of the local Housing, Settlement and Cemetery Service, said that from March 2020 until early January 2021, 278 people had died and were buried in the Buniayu Cemetery.

Iwan said there was an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients who died in January. In the first week alone, 22 people who died from Covid-19 were buried in Buniayu Cemetery.

Read: Depok City Hospitals Reaching Full Capacity in Treating Covid-19 Cases

Ayu Cipta (Contributor)