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A COVID-19 patient waits for an ambulance that will take him to a COVID-19 referral hospital in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

Athletes village in Jakarta to house asymptomatic COVID-19 patients

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As the number of confirmed cases and fatalities from COVID-19 continues to rise, the government has prepared an apartment tower from the former Kemayoran athletes village – now an emergency hospital for infected patients in Central Jakarta – to house asymptomatic coronavirus patients for isolation, a top official said on Saturday.

With the hospital bed occupancy rate in Jakarta’s 67 COVID-19 referral hospitals having surpassed 60 percent, the government was working to create more space by sending patients with mild to moderate symptoms to the athletes village, National COVID-19 Task Force chief Doni Monardo said.

“Towers 6 and 7 currently accommodate patients with mild to moderate cases. Half of them are asymptomatic. With the addition of Tower 5, the government is providing more facilities for the people who tested positive for COVID-19 but show no symptoms, as their own homes are not sufficient for self-isolation,” he said on Saturday, adding that at least 1,500 beds were prepared in Tower 5.

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Doni also said that the government was preparing two-starred and three-starred hotels to isolate asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

Moreover, he called on the COVID-19 referral hospitals to immediately release patients whose conditions had improved to free up isolation beds for other patients.

Earlier this month, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that his administration would issue a policy requiring all COVID-19 patients in the capital city to be quarantined at coronavirus referral centers. The new regulation would stipulate that COVID-19 patients, whether or not they show symptoms, would be quarantined in state facilities in a bid to break the chain of infection.

Indonesia recorded 3,806 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 214,746 with 8,650 fatalities and 152,458 recoveries. Jakarta remains the epicenter of the outbreak nationally with 1,205 new cases, bringing the city's total to 52,840.