SURABAYA MAYOR CRIES OVER RISING CASES
Roy Goh and Shankar Ganesh Risma apologises to doctor during briefing on Covid-19
IN a dramatic turn of events, Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini broke down in tears as she knelt down in front of and apologised to a doctor during a meeting in her office.
The mayor, better known as Risma, was in a meeting on the Covid-19 crisis with the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) and local authorities when it happened, The Jakarta Post reported.
A pulmonologist from Dr Soetomo Hospital was briefing Risma on how the hospital was overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients when she cried and knelt, apologising, based on a video shared on social media on Monday.
In the briefing, the doctor also said there were many residents of Surabaya, East Java, who ignored health protocols aimed at preventing further transmissions of the virus.
His statement led to a temporary halt of the meeting as Risma cried and knelt.
“If you blame us (the Surabaya administration), I won’t take it. We can’t even enter the hospital,” she had said according to online news portal tribunnews.com
Risma said her office faced hurdles in reaching out to hospitals when it tried to offer aid.
She said her administration had undertaken various efforts to control the spread of Covid-19. “Please don’t keep blaming us.” East Java is Indonesia’s Covid19 epicentre. The province has recorded 11,805 cases up to Monday, surpassing Jakarta, which recorded 11,114 cases.
Based on the East Java Covid-19 Task Force report on Sunday, half of the cases in the province was recorded in Surabaya, with 5,510 cases and 418 fatalities.
An East Java Covid-19 Task Force official had suggested that the city reinstate the large-scale social restrictions in the wake of soaring new cases.
Risma, however, said her administration was not planning to reinstate restrictions, but it would shift focus to more testing and shutting down shopping centres if cases were found there, adding that the numbers showed a “downward trend”.