Government Prepares another Evacuation

REUTERS

Passengers are seen on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, as the vessel\'s passengers continue to be tested for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan February 18, 2020.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS - The Indonesian government will prioritize evacuation efforts for all Indonesians infected by the new coronavirus no matter where they might be. After evacuating 238 Indonesian citizens from Wuhan, China, the government is preparing the evacuation of three Indonesian crew members of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, who have been confirmed as infected by the virus that causes Covid-19.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in Jakarta on Tuesday (18/2/2020) that three out of a total of 78 Indonesians working at the Diamond Princess cruise ship had been infected by the coronavirus. The ship is now quarantined in Yokohama, Japan.

The three Indonesian citizens are among hundreds of people who were infected by the coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. Two of the three Indonesian citizens have been taken to a hospital in the city of Chiba. "The Indonesian embassy team has arrived in Chiba to ensure that our citizens receive the best possible treatment," Retno said.

She said the Indonesian embassy in Tokyo had communicated with the Indonesian citizens on the ship. "I talked to them by telephone. We conveyed the government’s concern, and talked with the Japanese authorities," said Retno.

CHINATOPIX VIA AP

In this Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020, photo, a medical worker records down a patient\'s condition at Jinyintan Hospital designated for new coronavirus infected patients, in Wuhan in central China\'s Hubei province. China reported thousands new virus cases and more deaths in its update Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020 on a disease outbreak that has caused milder illness in most people, an assessment that promoted guarded optimism from global health authorities.

The evacuation will be the first option to be taken by the government, but the process will not be easy because there is the “factor of the ship’s owners”.

There are about 3,700 passengers and crew members on the Diamond Princess from more than 50 countries and territories. As many as 542 people have been confirmed as having been infected by the coronavirus on the ship, which has been quarantined in Japan since Feb. 3. The ship has become the largest cluster of the virus spread outside China. The governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, South Korea and Hong Kong said they would follow the initiative of the United States in evacuating its citizens from the ship.

On Tuesday, China reported 1,886 newly confirmed cases of infection and an additional 98 deaths. Thus the total number of the infection cases and the death toll rose to 72,436 cases and 1,868, respectively. Outside of China, there are 827 positive cases in 26 countries and five deaths.

Covid-19 is the official name of the disease caused by the new coronavirus as unveiled by the World Health Organization (WHO). The International Committee for Virus Taxonomy has named the virus as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2.

XINHUA VIA AP/XIAO YIJIU

In this Monday, Feb. 17, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, patients infected with the coronavirus take rest at a temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan in central China\'s Hubei Province. China reported thousands new virus cases and more deaths in its update Tuesday on a disease outbreak that has caused milder illness in most people, an assessment that promoted guarded optimism from global health authorities. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)

Director dies

Liu Zhiming, the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China, died from Covid-19 on Tuesday. He became the seventh medical worker in China to die as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Wuhan city health commission said Liu, from the beginning, had taken part in the battle against the new coronavirus. Liu also made an important contribution to combating and controlling the spread of the virus.

"He was infected and died on Tuesday at 10:55 a.m. at the age of 51 after an all-out effort to save him failed," the Wuhan city health commission said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Migrant Care believes there are a number of Indonesian domestic workers who have not been repatriated from China to Indonesia amid the outbreak of the new coronavirus. It is difficult to repatriate them because they entered China illegally and they do not have valid travel documents.

He was infected and died on Tuesday at 10:55 a.m. at the age of 51 after an all-out effort to save him failed.

The head of Migrant Care’s migration study center, Anis Hidayah, said the NGO had monitored and contacted the domestic workers in Wuhan through social media.

In Palembang, South Sumatra, a patient suffering an acute respiratory infection, TH, 62, was treated in the isolation room of the Dr. Mohammad Hoesin Hospital on Tuesday. The chairman of the emerging infectious disease team at the hospital, Zen Ahmad, said the patient had suffered shortness of breath and fever for 14 days. The patient is under observation in the isolation room until there is a result of tests from the Health Research and Development Agency of the Health Ministry in Jakarta.

In Banyuwangi, East Java, a patient who has been intensively treated at the Blambangan Hospital since Sunday was declared negative for Covid-19 because she did not experience pneumonia. The woman who had just returned from Singapore had earlier been treated at the Fatimah Hospital. The decision to send her home was made by the chairman of the emerging infectious disease team at the Blambangan hospital, I Ririek Perwitasari. (LU K/ R E U T E R S /A F P/A P/ L O K/ D E A / G E R / R A M / TA N )