ibps-so 2021 · Question 90 of 269

e e w w Direction: Directions : Read the passage and answer the questions that follow. The Indonesian Government has issued various policies to fight Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). However, cases have continued to fluctuate over a year into the pandemic. There is a need to assess the country's healthcare system's capacity to absorb and accommodate the varying healthcare demands. Indonesia is an important bellwether for the state of democracy in the era of COVID-19. It is the world's fourth most populous nation and a Muslim-majority democracy with hundreds of ethnic groups and substantial numbers of religious minorities. Alongside its size and diversity, the country shares some common features with other populous democracies like India, Brazil, and the United States. Over 1 year into the COVID-19 Pandemic, Indonesia had reported 1,837,126 cases and 51,095 deaths. The most crowded island of Java has the highest caseload, with all six provinces in the island making up around 66.1% of the national tally. Currently available medical staff in Indonesia are insufficient to deal with potentially increasing demands for managing COVID-19 cases. This pandemic highlighted the human resources challenges the country's health system has been struggling with, characterized by an inadequate physician-to-population ratio, an inequality of physician geographical distribution, and a significant shortage of nurses and midwives. The shortage of healthcare professionals has been further ______________ (1) by the deaths of healthcare professionals, which have been reported worldwide. Lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been commonly cited as a cause of death among healthcare professionals globally. Such lack of PPE, including coveralls, N95 masks, and face shields, has also been reported in Indonesia. Surges in patients requiring hospitalization have led to depleted medical supplies and escalating the utilization of limited medical equipment (e.g., ventilators). (2) Especially in small cities (i) and mechanical ventilation, (ii) shortage of high-flow oxygen devices (iii) and outside Java, (iv) has been reported (v). The pandemic has exposed the fragility of medical supply chains in Indonesia. The medical supply system in Indonesia has so far relied mainly on the global supply chain. (3) The surge of COVID-19 cases (i)/have also exposed the limited capacity (ii)/of the Indonesian healthcare infrastructure (iii)/to manage medical waste (iv). Improper disposal of medical waste has been a major environmental problem in Indonesia even before the pandemic. The Indonesian Government needs to ramp up the country's healthcare capacity. In terms of staff, the number and distribution of healthcare workers and their well-being are still areas of concern. Boosting healthcare capacity should be coupled with efforts to flattening the curve, e.g., suppress transmission through the implementation of effective and evidence-based public health and social measures; reduce exposure by (4) enabling communities to adopt risk-reducing behaviours and practice infection prevention and control. Effective pandemic response ultimately requires governments' commitment to increase healthcare capacity and flatten the curve concurrently. Which of the following is the synonym of the word ‘bellwether’ mentioned in the passage?

1. Amiser
2. BpacesetterCorrect
3. Cpractitioner
4. Ddreamer
5. Efailure