The Kurik Health Center has just stopped its services for the ICU and rooms for inpatients, but it still serves those in need of other medical servicesJayapura, Papua (ANTARA) - Kurik Health Center in Kurik Sub-district, Merauke, Papua, terminated services for intensive care unit and inpatient rooms from Aug 6 to Aug 21 after a resident treated there tested positive for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Nine of the health center's 50 medical workers were also isolated, while the infected resident was sent to a local hospital for medical treatment, spokesman of Merauke District's COVID-19 Task Force Neville Maskita revealed here on Thursday.
"The Kurik Health Center has just stopped its services for the ICU and rooms for inpatients, but it still serves those in need of other medical services," Maskita noted, adding that the nine medical workers had tested negative for COVID-19.
Despite their negative swab test results confirming that they had not contracted the virus, the nine medical workers, who came in direct contact with the infected resident, were isolated, and the health center's facilities were disinfected, Maskita remarked.
"The Kurik Health Center will resume its normal medical services on Aug 22," Maskita stated, adding that the health center has 50 paramedics, including two general practitioners and a dentist, and 10 hospital beds.
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Coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.
COVID-19 has thereafter spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a huge rise in death toll.
Papua has been making persistent, all-out efforts to flatten the coronavirus curve, but the COVID-19 pandemic remains a grave challenge for the province, as 33 locals succumbed to the deadly virus, while 3,087 others are hospitalized at several hospitals.
With 1,864 confirmed cases, Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, was viewed as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, spokesman of the Papua Provincial Government's COVID-19 Task Force Silwaus Sumule stated in Jayapura on Tuesday evening.
Jayapura, Mimika, Keerom, and Biak Numfor are the four other districts, with a high count of COVID-19 cases, he noted, adding that 1,495 symptomatic residents had made a complete recovery and were discharged from hospitals.
In the wake of the high rate of infection, local authorities have yet to enforce a transitional period for adapting to the new normal scenario in Jayapura City, but if the COVID-19 curve can be flattened, it can be imposed in September, he remarked.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Sri Haryati
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