Just two months ago, Indonesia Thousands of tanks of oxygen are being used to help India gasp.
Today, this Southeast Asian country is experiencing a devastating tsunami, and oxygen is about to run out. coronavirus The government is seeking emergency supplies from other countries, including Singapore and China.
Indonesia’s government minister in charge of the pandemic response, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said that more than 1,000 oxygen cylinders, concentrators, ventilators and other medical equipment were shipped from Singapore on Friday, followed by another 1,000 ventilators from Australia.
Pandjaitan said that in addition to these donations, Indonesia also plans to purchase 36,000 tons of oxygen and 10,000 concentrators (equipment that produces oxygen) from neighboring Singapore.
He said he is in contact with China and other potential sources of oxygen. The United States and the United Arab Emirates also provided assistance.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said: “We recognize that Indonesia is currently finding itself in a predicament of a surge in COVID cases.” She said that in addition to sending vaccines, the United States is also working to increase assistance to Indonesia’s broader COVID-19 response. But did not elaborate.
Overall, Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world, with more than 2.4 million COVID-19 infections and 63,760 deaths reported. Due to the low detection rate and weak tracking measures, it is generally believed that these numbers are greatly underestimated. On Thursday, Indonesia reported nearly 39,000 confirmed cases, the largest increase in a single day.
Hospitals in Indonesia are overcrowded, and more and more patients are quarantined and died at home or while waiting for emergency care.
On Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, the hospital began setting up a temporary intensive care unit in mid-June. Many patients wait a few days before being admitted to the hospital. The oxygen tank was pushed onto the sidewalk for those lucky enough to get it, while others were told that they had to find it themselves.
Yaya Mulyana, Deputy Mayor of Bandung City, said that the emergency room of a public hospital in Bandung City was closed earlier this week due to oxygen depletion. Panic buying was triggered by the surge in the number of infections in the capital of West Java. .
“People in panic bought oxygen tanks, even if they didn’t need them yet,” Muliana said. “This causes the oxygen supply to run out.”
Spokesperson Banu Hermawan said that in a hospital in Yogyakarta, central Java, 63 COVID-19 patients died in one day, and 33 of them died due to the interruption of the central liquid oxygen supply, even though the hospital had switched to oxygen cylinders.
When India suffered a brutal epidemic, Indonesia donated 3,400 oxygen cylinders and concentrators to India. Following the surge in cases in the country, Jakarta subsequently cancelled its plan to ship another 2,000 oxygen generators to India in late June.
The daily demand for oxygen has reached 1,928 tons. According to government data, the country’s total available production capacity is 2,262 tons per day.
“I require 100% of the oxygen to be used for medical purposes first, which means that all industrial distribution must be transferred to the medical field,” said Government Minister Pandjaitan. “We are in a race against time, and we must work fast.”
Given the rapid spread of highly infectious delta variants, he warned that Indonesia could face the worst of 50,000 cases per day. He said that the next two weeks will be crucial.
In response, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a decree to send all oxygen supplies to hospitals crowded with coronavirus patients and require industry participants to cooperate.
Oxygen is used to make many products, including textiles, plastics, and vehicles. It is also used by oil refineries, chemical manufacturers and steel manufacturers. But industry leaders have performed poorly in supporting government efforts to maximize supply for hospitals.
Pandjaitan said the government has re-supplyed oxygen from industrial plants in Morowali in Central Sulawesi, Balikpapan in Borneo, Belawan in Sumatra and industrial plants in Batam. The smaller oxygen industry is also used to produce medicinal oxygen.
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