VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A screenshot of President Joko Widodo delivering a statement on the development of COVID-19 on Friday (January 28, 2022). (ANTARA/Desca Lidya Natalia) - 

President Joko Widodo has asked asymptomatic COVID-19 patients or those with mild symptoms to utilize telemedicine services to ease the burden on hospitals.

"When your PCR test result is positive without experiencing any symptoms, you can conduct self-isolation at home for five days. If you have symptoms such as cough, runny nose, or fever, please use the telemedicine service or go to the community health center or the nearest doctor," he said at the Bogor Presidential Palace on Friday.

According to the President, telemedicine is one method to ease the burden on health facilities.

"This is important so that our health facilities can focus on handling (COVID-19) patients with severe symptoms and patients suffering from other diseases who need intensive care," he explained.

Indonesia is currently witnessing an increase in daily COVID-19 cases, especially of the Omicron variant, he said.

The increase is predicted to continue for several weeks, he noted.

By learning from the surge in Omicron cases that occurred in several countries earlier, the government has made a lot of preparations to deal with the potential surge, President Widodo said.

"Improvement in various health facilities and infrastructure has been adjusted to the character of the Omicron variant, which is different from the previous variant and requires different handling," he noted.

He said that one of the improvements made by the government has been in the provision of telemedicine services.

"Not all Omicron cases need direct (health) services because the symptoms are not dangerous. The most important thing is to minimize (social) contact; this will prevent (COVID-19) transmission from getting wider," he informed.

The President also appealed to the community to remain calm and not panic.

"Always implement health protocols, reduce unnecessary activities. I invite all of you to take care of your health as well as possible to boost immunity," he remarked.

The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of January 28, 2022, at least 4,319,175 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in the country, while 4,131,333 people have recovered and 144,268 people have succumbed to the virus//ANT