Indonesia ramps up Oxygen production, prepares facilities for worst-case COVID-19 scenario

Indonesia has begun the dismal task of preparing extra medical facilities to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has started preparing accommodation infrastructure that can be quickly turned into isolation facilities and has also ramped up the production of oxygen for a worst-case scenario where the daily number of COVID-19 cases are expected to go up to 40,000 or more.

The Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo island, were being watched closely amid the rise in cases of the Delta variant, and nearly 8,000 new beds are being added in Greater Jakarta.

Currently, Indonesia is witnessing the most severe COVID-19 outbreak, the highly infectious Delta variant is worsening the situation in the country. With growing number of new cases, hospitals and other medical facilities are slowly getting outnumbered. Being Southeast Asia's largest and most populated country, so far only 1.6 % of its more than 270 million population have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

"The number can go up to 40,000 or more, that's why we have prepared scenarios — when it comes to medications, oxygen, and also hospitals," Luhut said, adding that help had been sought from countries like China and Singapore. As per the latest reports, nearly 76% of beds in Indonesian hospitals were occupied on Monday, health ministry data showed, though some regions on Java island have reported a rate higher than 85%.

In order to curb the spread of the deadly virus, the government on Saturday imposed restrictions on several activities, including public transport, office work, dining, and air travel on Java and Bali islands. The country also tightened 20 other provinces. The government officials have also complained about the heavy traffic in Jakarta. Meanwhile, the governor of the city, Anies Baswedan, took to Twitter and said his inspection team on Tuesday found a lot of non-essential still working.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, has seen a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks. The Health Ministry recorded 29,745 new cases followed by 558 deaths from the virus in the last 24 hours. The country has recorded more than 2,284,000 cases, including 60,582 deaths.