Jakarta. Governor Anies Baswedan confirmed on Wednesday that the large-scale social restrictions will be re-imposed in Jakarta in coming days, otherwise all hospitals in the capital city will be overwhelmed within a week.

Describing his decision as “pulling the emergency brake”, Anies said 77 percent of 4,053 isolation beds for Covid-19 patients are currently occupied and that they will reach the limit next week without concrete measures to slow down the transmission.

“We almost reach the limit of hospital capacity. Our projection is that all isolation beds will be occupied by September 17,” Anies said in a video message.

“We involve private hospitals to increase the capacity by 20 percent to 4,807 beds. But even so, they will be overwhelmed by the second week of October.”

Without strict social restrictions, the increase in hospital capacity will only buy time before the health system is overwhelmed, he added.

“As for ICU beds, the situation is no better. We have projected that all 528 ICU beds for Covid-19 patients will be fully occupied on September 15 if the upward trend in new cases continues,” Anies said.

“If we increase ICU beds by 20 percent to 636, they will reach the limit by September 25.”

“When the growth of active cases is faster than that of hospital capacity, then we are at an emergency situation.”

Jakarta is the hardest hit by the virus in the Indonesian outbreak and it saw a new level of transmission rate since late August when daily total began to exceed 1,000.

It has recorded 49,397 confirmed cases of the virus since the outbreak and the transmission has added the pace since early last month. The city has added more than 9,300 cases month to date.

However, Anies claimed that local health officials have successfully contained the death toll below the national average.

According to the Health Ministry, 1,334 people have died from coronavirus-related diseases in Jakarta.

“The case fatality rate in Jakarta is 2.7 percent, lower than the national average of 4.1 percent, or the global average of 3.3 percent. Thanks to the help from Allah, Jakarta successfully suppressed the fatality rate,” he said.

Offices to Shut

Anies said the restrictions will take effect on Sept. 14 when non-essential business premises will have to shut and work-from-home policy will be in place again.

“All entertainment businesses will be temporarily closed. Restaurants and café are allowed to open but dining on premise is strictly prohibited,” he said.

“The outbreak in Jakarta is now an emergency. The president said two days ago that we should not restart the economy until the health crisis is overcome. There is little choice for Jakarta but to pull the emergency brake immediately,” he said.