TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Covid-19 Task Force has increased the number of beds for Covid-19 referral hospitals by more than 10,000 units. This is to anticipate the surge in patients requiring treatment following a rise in Omicron infections.

The Task Force's spokesman, Wiku Adisasmito, said the government is providing 10,996 hospital beds to be placed in isolation rooms and ICU wards.

"This figure can be optimized by converting up to 40 times and the need will increase in the future," he said in an online press conference, Wednesday, February 2.

Wiku said that, nationwide, hospitals' bed occupancy rate (BOR) has begun to increase in Covid-19 referral hospitals. As of January 30, the average BOR for Covid-19 referral hospitals has reached 13.89 percent.

He said that Jakarta currently holds the highest Covid patients' bed occupancy rate with 52 percent, followed by Banten with 22 percent and West Java with 16 percent.

"The good news is that 30 provinces in Indonesia are still able to maintain BOR below 10 percent," he said.

However, Wiku said that in the last few days the Covid-19 death rates have been much lower than during the first wave. At that time, the daily death count average was 300. As of February 1, there have been 28 deaths due to Covid-19.

"So it can be interpreted that most of the patients now have a great chance of recovering. In fact, 90 percent of Omicron positive patients experience mild or no symptoms," he said.

Read: Indonesia's COVID-19 Cases Increase 40 Times in One Month: Task Force

Arrijal Rachman