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Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Secretary General Sudirman Said (second right), with Head of Jakarta's PMI Office Rustam Effendi (first right), and Head of PMI-North Jakarta Office Sabri Saiman (second left) (ANTARA/Abdu Faisal/MY) - 

Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Secretary General Sudirman Said lauded people's initiative to assist those suffering from COVID-19 in the country by launching the Recovering Together Movement that potentially helps reduce the burden on hospitals and healthcare workers.

"The 'Recovering Together Movement' is initiated by professionals, business executives, and humanitarian workers," Said noted in Jakarta on Friday.

The movement is aimed at facilitating people contracting the coronavirus to recover from the virus so that the burden on hospitals and health workers can be reduced during the pandemic, he said.

To this end, PT Lintas Raya Terpadu, for instance, has turned one of its buildings in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, into a self-isolation facility for COVID-19 patients, he informed.

The LRT initiative is expected to inspire other regions to do the same, he said.

Many buildings owned by state-owned enterprises, region-owned enterprises, and private-owned businesses are not being optimally used due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.

If those buildings could be used as self-isolation facilities for the public, the burden on healthcare workers and hospitals could be reduced, he said.

"Buildings like boarding houses, training and education centers, andoffices can temporarily be used as centralized self-isolation facilities to ease the burden on health workers and hospitals," he said. 

Meanwhile, Head of PMI-North Jakarta Office Sabri Saiman said that PT LRT's self-isolation facility which offers 21 rooms is a good initiative while the PMI supports the initiative by providing health workers and food ingredients.

At this self-isolation facility, there are rooms with two, three, and more beds that are suitable for a family. Each room has an air conditioner and wireless internet connection, he said.

PT LRT has also provided a public kitchen for self-isolating patients that they may manage themselves.

Every facility in a self-isolation space does notuse state funds, he said. For example, public kitchens are managed by the patients themselves, he added.

He deemed independent management necessary for building public awareness on social issues so that people can remain enthusiastic about their treatment and their surroundings until they make a recovery.

Wijanarko from PT LRT said that the facility for self-isolating COVID-19 patients was initially meant for the internal use for the employees of city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) who get infected by the coronavirus. 

"There are some places we use (for staff's self-isolation spaces), the decent ones. So, we make isolation space for internal use," Wijanarko said.

"Jakpro has collaborated with some others (stakeholders) to (allow the building) to be used by locals living nearby," he added//ANT