Eka Mulyana, head of the West Java chapter of the association known as IDI, on Friday warned hospital bed occupancy rates for coronavirus patients in Indonesia’s most populous province exceed 90%.
In Bandung, the provincial capital, the rate has even surpassed 100% — far above the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 60%. Some hospitals have set up emergency tents to accommodate a continuing influx of patients.
“A 100% occupancy rate means we’re actually collapsing. Our health facilities are (facing) very bad overloads,” Mulyana told a virtual media briefing.
“Dozens of patients are lining up at hospitals’ emergency wards. And we’ve heard stories of people having difficulties getting their families treated.”
Bandung is currently imposing partial lockdowns. Tourist sites are closed, malls and traditional markets have reduced their operating hours and restaurants are allowed to serve takeout only. But Mulyana said the measures are not enough.
“The number of infections, case fatality rates and bed occupancy rates are all very high,” he said. “Seeing the exponential surges in some regions … we firmly request for the re-enactment of large-scale social restrictions, even stricter (than before). It has to be immediately done if we want to immediately end the surges.”
As a whole, Indonesia today reported 18,872 new cases, a drop from the 20,574 seen the day before but still the second-highest daily tally since the pandemic first hit the country in March 2020. There were 422 new deaths, the highest since April.
Jakarta is not faring much better than Bandung.
The nation’s capital reported a nearly 90% bed occupancy rate several days ago, so the government recently converted some hospitals into full treatment facilities for Covid-19 patients. Additionally, some apartments have been turned into isolation facilities for the growing number of patients with mild symptoms.
Yet the government is still reluctant to impose wider lockdowns, fearing the economic impact, and has opted for tightening the so-called PPKM Mikro in Jakarta and elsewhere. The policy refers to micro-scale restrictions at the neighbourhood level, applied on areas where there are multiple active infections.
“The hospitals are currently in a bad crisis, (facing) extraordinary burdens. We can’t answer the problem by simply adding hospital beds — because then we have to add other facilities and human resources too,” IDI chairman Mohammad Adib Khumaidi said.
“There needs to be an intervention … to allow us to handle patients that are currently piling up before having to treat others.”
The IDI says some other regions on the island of Java are facing similar hardships, including the provinces of Yogyakarta and Central Java.
The more virulent delta variant is believed to be adding to outbreaks in the wake of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr last month, when over 1 million people from Jakarta alone were estimated to join the Eid exodus to hometowns.
In total, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has reported 2,072,867 coronavirus cases and 56,371 deaths as of Friday — the worst numbers in Asia after India.
The IDI reported 24 deaths among doctors in June so far, the highest since February, when it logged 31. Overall, since the beginning of the pandemic, 945 Indonesian health workers have died — including 401 doctors.
The association warned that health workers’ deaths will further aggravate Indonesia’s Covid crisis, and that this can only be prevented by reducing the strain on hospitals through stricter movement rules.
“However loud the calls (for people to stay home), they won’t be effective,” Mulyana said. “We need firm regulation to restrict the movement.”