JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – A total of 342 Indonesian healthcare workers have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic hit the country in early March, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said on Saturday.
The IDI’s Mitigation Team said in a statement that the healthcare workers who died comprise 192 doctors, 14 dentists, and 136 nurses.
Out of 192 doctors, there were 101 general practitioners, 89 specialist doctors, and two resident doctors. Eleven professors were among those who died after contracting the coronavirus.
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The Indonesian Nurses Association (PPNI) chairman Harif Fadhilah said that about 75 percent of the nurses who died were those who served in the in-patient ward.
“It is possible that the nurses contracted the coronavirus from the patients who were still waiting for the results of their Covid-19 swab tests or people without the Covid-19 symptoms,” said Harif in a statement.
He said that the healthcare workers from various divisions had been overwhelmed with the increasing number of Covid-19 patients and the results of the swab tests.
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Therefore, he hopes for the support of the government and healthcare facilities to improve the quality of medical examination equipment.
“This is to reduce the number of transmission in health facilities and to provide routine checks for healthcare workers,” he said.