Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said that he expects COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to be treated at home since hospitals are prioritizing patients with moderate and severe symptoms.

“We are expecting that if the patient is experiencing no symptoms (asymptomatic) or mild symptoms, they can be treated at home. Out of 27 thousand COVID-19 patients in hospitals, more than around 15 thousand are actually asymptomatic patients or those with mild symptoms,” Sadikin noted during a press conference, accessed online from here on Monday.

According to the minister, if oxygen saturation is still above 95 percent and there are mild symptoms such as a slight cough, cold, and fever, a patient can be treated at home.

He also informed that the government has provided telemedicine services to more than 350 thousand citizens so far, and around 100 thousand of them have received medicines.

He affirmed that the government will provide telemedicine services to regions outside Java and Bali starting this week.

Earlier, the director-general of health services at the Ministry of Health, Abdul Kadir, had said that the ministry is expanding telemedicine services following the increasing number of COVID-19 patients who are self-isolating at home.

“For drug packages for patients who are self-isolating, it currently has reached 95 percent that we can deliver drugs to patients’ homes within 24 hours, and we have accelerated drug procurement in collaboration with Kimia Farma,” he informed.

Even though the Omicron variant transmits faster, its symptoms are not as severe as the Delta variant, he noted.

However, the community must remain alert because there is still a risk for older adults, children, people with comorbidities, and unvaccinated people, he added.

The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of February 14, 2022, Indonesia has recorded a total of 4,844,279 COVID-19 cases, 4,323,101 recoveries, and 145,321 deaths.

The Ministry of Health detected the first Omicron case in Indonesia on December 15, 2021. With the spread of the new variant, Indonesia has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases.

Source: Antara News