Looking ahead, North Sumatra will have 11 referral hospitals to cater to a possible surge in the number of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients as well as patients under surveillance.
Medan (ANTARA) - The COVID-19 Response Task Force in North Sumatra Province has readied 11 hospitals as a precautionary measure against a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the province.

"Looking ahead, North Sumatra will have 11 referral hospitals to cater to a possible surge in the number of suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients as well as patients under surveillance," spokesman for the North Sumatra COVID-19 Task Force Aris Yudhariansyah stated on Friday.

Furthermore, the North Sumatra provincial government has distributed four thousand rapid test kits to all district and city health offices in the province in a bid to identify more number of COVID-19 cases, he noted.

"We have distributed more than four thousand rapid test kits to health offices in districts and municipalities across North Sumatra as well as hospitals serving as the first line of defense against the COVID-19 pandemic. We do it to facilitate the early handling of patients testing positive and negative for the virus quickly," he explained.

The government has also distributed personal protective equipment among medical workers to prevent their exposure to the virus, he remarked.

"Protective equipment has also been distributed to hospitals to meet the requirements of medical workers on the forefront in treating COVID-19 patients," he stated.

He further appealed to hospitals to pay attention to the management of COVID-19-related waste and garbage, so that they would not become a source of the contagious disease. Related news: Indonesia builds hospitals, quarantine centers in handling COVID-19
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Translator: Juraidi/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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