JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - With an increasing number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations in the Indonesian capital city, a doctors association has called for residents of Jakarta to stay at home during the Christmas and New Year holidays to prevent a further spike in cases.

The hospital bed occupancy rate in the city's 98 Covid-19 referral hospitals had been increasing in the past month.

Isolation beds in the city were already at 85 per cent occupancy, while intensive care beds were at 80 per cent, the Jakarta Health Agency recorded last Saturday (Dec 19).

"Hospitals are full right now. Even if there are enough doctors, there is no place (to treat patients). It is concerning," said Dr Slamet Budiarto, head of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

He called on people to work together to prevent the virus from further spreading, particularly during the coming holidays.

"People should refrain from dining at restaurants," Dr Slamet said.

"And please just have your holidays at home and don't go out. It is boring, we know... while waiting for vaccines to be available next year."

Indonesia is South-east Asia's worst-hit country in the pandemic.

As at Wednesday, the virus has killed 20,408 people and infected 685,639.

The Jakarta administration on Sunday extended the transitional period of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) for another two weeks until Jan 3 in the hope of preventing a spike in Covid-19 cases during the year-end holidays.

Jakarta recorded a significant increase in new confirmed cases in the past four weeks, with experts suspecting they were the result of a long weekend in late October.

Infection clusters emerging from workplaces and households remained the main source of Covid-19 transmission in Jakarta, Governor Anies Baswedan said while announcing the extension.

Jakarta Health Agency head Widyastuti said her office was seeking to add more isolation beds to bring the total to 7,171, as well as more intensive care beds for a total of 1,020 to anticipate an increase in cases.

She said the city would also increase the number of health workers.

A referral hospital in Central Jakarta, the Athletes Village emergency hospital, for instance, is running out of beds and can no longer accept asymptomatic patients.

Bed occupancy rates in three out of four apartment towers used as the makeshift hospital were already at 75 per cent on average.

The hospital is sparing beds in the only remaining tower for patients showing mild or moderate symptoms.

Meanwhile, the majority of Indonesians are hesitant about getting a Covid-19 vaccine amid persistent concerns over safety and the efficacy of the coronavirus vaccines, a survey by Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) finds.

The nationwide survey, conducted between Dec 16 and 19 and polling 1,202 people, found that only 37 per cent of respondents were willing to be inoculated once the coronavirus vaccines became available for public use.

In contrast, 40 per cent of respondents were still uncertain about whether to get vaccine injections, while the remaining 17 per cent stated their disapproval of the vaccination drive.

SMRC public policy manager Tati Wardi said the percentage of respondents willing to be vaccinated had dipped significantly from that recorded in the previous study.

"According to last week's survey, those willing to participate in the vaccination drive reached 54 per cent, but now the number has dropped to just 37 per cent," she said during an online discussion on Tuesday.