IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – The Covid-19 Omicron cases are currently on the rise. The Indonesian Health Ministry as of January 26, logged a total of 1,988 Omicron patients. President Joko Widodo or Jokowi asserted that the government had set a number of preparations to face the surge of daily Covid cases.
“Learning from the surge of Omicron variant cases in other countries, the government has done a lot of preparations to deal with it [here in Indonesia],” Jokowi said at Bogor Presidential Palace on Friday, Jan. 28.
The Indonesian government has set six preparations to mitigate Omicron transmission.
1. PPKM Evaluation
The government continues to implement the public activity restriction or PPKM with several adjustments as stipulated in the Home Affairs Ministerial Instruction.
2. Increasing the Testing, Tracing, and Treatment
The Health Ministry is increasing the testing, tracing, and treatment in regions prone to high Covid transmission. As for the testing, the ministry has distributed the SGTF kit to all labs and ensured that the number is sufficient.
The ministry will increase the tracing ratio in regions with more than 30 positive cases to prevent wider transmission. The military (TNI), police, and the public will be involved in this process.
In addition, the Health Ministry ensures the availability of isolation wards, be it centered or self-isolation venues, for those with mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic. As for patients with medium and severe symptoms, the government has set sufficient hospital bed capacity.
3. Hospital Bed Capacity
The Health Ministry has prepared 70,641 hospital beds. The national capacity is 120,000-130,000 beds.
4. Teleconsultation Service and Free Medicine Package
Just like last year, the Health Ministry has prepared a telemedicine service for self-isolating patients that are confirmed to be infected with the Omicron variant. Through the service, the patients could get a teleconsultation service and free medicine package.
This service could be accessed through https://isoman.kemkes.go.id/. The ministry is partnering with 17 telemedicine platforms, they are Aido Health, Alodokter, GetWell , Good Doctor, Halodoc, Homecare24, KlikDokter, KlinikGo, Lekasehat, LinkSehat, Mdoc, Milvik Dokter , ProSehat, SehatQ, Trustmedis, Vascular Indonesia, and YesDok. To get this service, the patients should be PCR tested at labs affiliated with the New All Record (NAR) system of the Health Ministry.
5. Oxygen Distribution
Learning from the period of Delta variant infection, Health Ministry has distributed around 16,000 oxygen concentrators or equal to 800 tons per day to various hospitals for Covid-19 patient treatment, especially to the hospital that has limited access to liquid oxygen.
6. Drugs Supply
The government has prepared the stock of medicines for Covid-19 patients and is ready to distribute them once there is a surge of drug demand in containing the Omicron cases. Among others is Molnupiravir. According to Health Minister Budi Gunadi, this drug is proven to have helped suppress the number of patients with 94 percent oxygen saturation admitted to the hospital.
Read: Health Minister Talks of Omicron Symptoms and How to Prevent It
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