Medical workers treat a patient during a medical simulation in an isolation room at Bogor General Hospital in West Java on March 4. (Antara/Arif Firmansyah via sia News Network)
JAKARTA — Three doctors who tested positive for COVID-19 died in Jakarta over the weekend.
An ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist from Bekasi, West Java, died on Saturday at Persahabatan Hospital in East Jakarta. Another doctor, a 34-year-old neurologist, died at the same hospital in the early hours of Sunday.
A 70-year-old surgeon from Bogor, West Java, died at Gatot Subroto Army Hospital (RSPAD) in Central Jakarta on Saturday.
“Yes, it’s true,” Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) chairman Daeng Muhammad Faqih told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, confirming the deaths of the three doctors.
Persahabatan Hospital spokesperson Erlina Burhan also confirmed the reports.
“It is true [that the ENT doctor and the surgeon died on Saturday]. The surgeon was not treated here but at RSPAD,” she told the Post.
Erlina, however, did not confirm the case of the 34-year-old neurologist.
Pandu Riono, a public health expert at the University of Indonesia and relative of the 70-year-old surgeon, told the Post that the surgeon felt sick and showed symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath on Wednesday night. He was immediately sent to a local hospital and hooked up to a ventilator.
“On Thursday, the doctor who treated him said he was a suspected COVID-19 patient and the Bogor Health Agency sent his throat swab sample to the Health Research and Development Agency [Balitbangkes],” Pandu told the Post.
“His doctor tried to transfer him to RSPAD and Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital but both hospitals were filled to capacity,” he said. “RSPAD took him in on Saturday morning but his condition had drastically deteriorated.”
Pandu said he had yet to receive results from Balitbangkes. However, a doctor at Gatot Subroto Army Hospital told the family that the surgeon tested positive for COVID-19.
On Friday, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan revealed that at least 25 medical personnel in the city had tested positive for COVID-19 and that one of them had died from the disease.
As of Sunday morning, Indonesia reported 450 confirmed COVID-19 cases nationwide, with 38 fatalities.