A man tested positive for coronavirus in a swab test done in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia. The 40-year-old patient caused a commotion in the city because he refused to be taken to the hospital for treatment and quarantine by a team of medical workers.
Angered over being taken to the hospital
Initialed as AR, became enraged when the team of medical workers, wearing hazmat suits, appeared on his doorstep on May 15, ready to pick him up. His house is located in the Empangsari subdistrict in the city. He was fuming when he saw his neighbors recording the whole incident on their mobile phones AR then ran after his neighbors who were recording at the time and he hugged them in an attempt to infect them with coronavirus.
According to Kompas.com, AR was challenging the people in the area, angrily shouting at those who were staring at him. He also started running a threatening people that he will hug them so they can all be monitored by medical workers. In the end, the medical workers were able to calm him down and persuade him to go to the hospital with them and be quarantined in a special isolation room.
The Deputy Mayor of Tasikmalaya, Muhammad Yusuf, said that a patient had gone berserk when medical workers picked him up. Yusuf said that the authority had to intervene and persuade the patient to go to the hospital because he refused to isolate himself. He added that he had ordered a team to forcibly take AR because if not, the whole neighborhood will be in danger of transmission of the virus happens.
The medical team is now tracking the contacts of the patient and they have disinfected the area around his house.
Coronavirus cases in Indonesia
Indonesia have recorded 17,514 coronavirus cases, with 1,148 total deaths and 4,129 recovered cases. The Indonesian government, led by President Joko Widodo, was so concerned by the impact of the pandemic on their economy, that they delayed containment measures.
In a desperate attempt, they relied on the unproven claim that warm weather will eventually stop the spread of the virus. Everything changed when Indonesia recorded its first coronavirus case in March. By then, Indonesia's neighboring countries like Thailand and Vietnam, were also steps ahead as they've rolled out mass testing and implemented mobility restrictions to help contain the spread of the virus in their respective communities.
Widodo then ruled out lockdowns, suggested that people work from home if possible, and allowed limited school closures nationwide. Because of the late implementation of containment measures, the country's coronavirus deaths increased so much that Indonesia was named as the country with the highest cases in Southeast Asia by April.
The crisis forced the government to declare a national health emergency and they immediately imposed social distancing measures nationwide. Restrictions on air, sea, and land travel were also implemented. The equipment was imported to speed up mass testing and they are manufacturing personal protective equipment for the country's medicals staff and ventilators for patients.
