Iran Press/ Asia: Budi Gunadi Sadikin told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” that Indonesia has up to around 130,000 beds dedicated to Covid patients. But he admitted that the Southeast Asian nation is facing two problems.
“The first issue is the acceleration is much faster than what we saw in January, February,” he said. “That’s why for a very dense area … we start the mobility restrictions next week, to make sure to reduce the speed of incoming patients to the hospital.”
He attributed the increase in new cases to the delta variant, which was first detected in India.
The second issue is that infections are concentrated in certain parts of the country, especially its most populous island, Java.
“In the Jakarta area, it’s already reaching 90% of the bed capacity,” he said on Wednesday.
Jan Gelfand of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said “lightning-fast action” is needed to give countries such as Indonesia access to vaccines.
Health minister Budi said only 30% to 40% of hospital beds are in use in Sumatra and Kalimantan. “It’s not evenly distributed.”
He also said Indonesia can increase oxygen production if needed, adding the country has diverted some industrial supply to hospitals.
Distribution is an issue, however, because factories are mostly located in West Java and East Java, while central Java needs oxygen supply, he said.
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