The West Papua Public Hospital in Manokwari has temporarily stopped receiving COVID-19 patients since Friday morning owing to the overwhelming number of patients, the hospital's director, Arnold Tiniap, said.
The referral hospital has run out of beds with the number of patients currently undergoing treatment at the facility exceeding the maximum capacity of 110 beds for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, he added.
"We are now treating 111 patients so we are forced to temporarily close the door on new incoming patients," he said.
Besides the overwhelming number of hospitalized patients, the hospital's capacity to serve patients has been affected on account of 20 medical workers contracting COVID-19 and proceeding for self-isolation, he added.
The hospital has also begun running out of medical oxygen for patients with moderate and severe COVID-19, he said.
Given the alarming situation, locals must protect themselves by complying with all recommended precautionary measures of COVID-19 prevention and mitigation, Tiniap urged.
"If the required implementation of health protocols is ignored, the efforts to flatten West Papua's coronavirus curve that the task force and other authorities have been making will be useless," he added.
West Papua recorded 2,912 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, an increase of 317 cases compared to the previous day.
Manokwari district contributed 1,404 of the province's 2,912 COVID-19 cases, Tiniap said.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially hit the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and subsequently spread across the globe, including to nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indonesian government announced the nation's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.
Since then, the central and regional governments have been endeavoring to slow infections by implementing health protocols.
Emergency public activity restrictions have also been imposed on the islands of Java and Bali from July 3 - July 20, 2021 to address an alarming resurgence in COVID-19 cases.
As part of efforts to win the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has been conducting a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.
As of July 9, 2021, a total of 35,775,567 Indonesians have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, an increase of 914,881 compared to the previous day, according to the Health Ministry.
The number of Indonesians who have received the second vaccine dose reached 14,868,577 on Friday, up 246,075 from the previous day, it added. (INE)
Related news: Indonesian Navy vaccinates 1,000 residents in West Papua's Sorong
Related news: Monitoring of incoming travelers tightened: West Papua police
EDITED BY INE
Translator: HA Kapisa, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
