TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Wisma Atlet Covid-19 Emergency Hospital in Kemayoran of Central Jakarta is preparing several measures to anticipate a surge in Covid-19 patients after the upcoming Eid al-Fitr holidays.

“We must make ourselves ready for all possibilities that may occur. Our hospital has 5,994 beds and doesn’t reduce it even though the current bed occupancy rate is below 30 percent,” said the hospital coordinator Maj. Gen. Tugas Ratmono in a written statement received in Jakarta, Friday, May 7.

One of the anticipatory measures is maintaining the number of health workers albeit the number of patients undergoing treatment in the facility has dropped.

Ratmono said his side had taken two factors in considering the efforts; the people’s mobility during Eid holidays and the emergence of virus mutations in India, the United Kingdom, and Africa.

Thus, he said the hospital must anticipate a spike in Covid-19 cases. It is feared that if the hospital is not ready to deal with it, it will be highly risky and dangerous.

“One of the principles to break the Covid-19 chain is to treat people infected with the virus as soon as possible,” said Ratmono who is also the head of the Indonesian Military‘s (TNI) Health Center.

Based on previous events, Indonesia saw a dramatic surge in the number of Covid-19 cases after the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. On September 27, 2020, and January 24, 2021, Wisma Atlet Emergency Hospital treated over 5,000 patients. “We do not want this to recur after Eid holidays,” Ratmono underlined.

Read: Wisma Atlet COVID-19 Hospital Discharges 64,894 Recovered Patients

ANTARA