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Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka (centre) and Bank Indonesia Deputy Governor Doni P. Joewono observing the oxygen generator equipment installed for Bung Karno General Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java, on Saturday (Dec 18, 2021). ANTARA/Aris Wasita. - 

Bank Indonesia (BI) Deputy Governor Doni P. Joewono opined that healthcare and vaccination are the game-changers in economic recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic that had caused a significant decline in multiple sectors since early 2020.

"We hope to always be healthy and that the residents' mobility would increase. The president and BI governor said that healthy, vaccinated residents are the game-changers in our economic recovery, and those are our current concerns," he stated after handing over oxygen generator equipment, distributed under the central bank's social assistance programme, to Bung Karno General Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java, on Saturday.

The deputy governor noted that the trend of increasing consumption among residents is the key for national economic growth, so enhancing mobility by ensuring vaccination and the residents' health was deemed of utmost importance.

"Despite our social programme is about primarily assisting MSMEs, a recent instruction from the central bank executives allowed the programme to be redirected for the national healthcare sector, as we want everyone to remain healthy," Joewono remarked.

He highlighted that a hospital in Surakarta was selected as the beneficiary recipient of the central bank's social programme owing to the high level of mobility and it also being an industrial and tourism destination.

Apart from the Bung Karno Hospital in Surakarta, the deputy governor informed that the Gatot Soebroto Army Central Hospital and Fatmawati Hospital in Jakarta are also targeted by the BI social programme.

"Our decision to help Bung Karno Hospital is not merely to help Surakarta residents but also for the Greater Surakarta region. We are optimistic that the hospital would also serve residents of regions outside Surakarta," Joewono noted.

Meanwhile, Surakarta Mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka expressed optimism that the new central bank-sponsored oxygen generator equipment would meet the oxygen demand for patients of Bung Karno Hospital and other health facilities in the city.

"We should no longer worry (about oxygen shortage), and we are optimistic that the new equipment would assist hospitals in the Greater Surakarta and other regions in Central Java," the mayor noted.

The oxygen generator equipment, priced at Rp6.48 billion (around US$453 thousand), provided for Bung Karno Hospital could produce 76 oxygen cylinders with 96-percent purity or 42 oxygen cylinders with 99.5-percent purity daily, he revealed//ANT