"The data was collected from community health care centers, health posts, and mobile post services, which continue to operate on a 24-hour basis," Head of Riau Provinces Health Service Andra Sjafril stated here on Wednesday.
He noted that the haze disaster, caused by forest and land fires, continued to intensify over the past three months. The government has provided face masks and medicines.
The Riau health official explained that the stock of face masks is therefore adequate.
"The stock of medicines is also adequate, so the people need not worry about the shortage of medicines and face masks," Sjafril affirmed.
The haze victims comprised 66,234 people suffering from upper respiratory tract infections, 1,076 pneumonia, 3,073 asthma, 3,693 eye irritation, and 4,857 skin diseases.
In the meantime, thick haze has hindered aerial water bombing operations involving two helicopters operated by Riaus Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).
"We have prepared two helicopters since this morning, but the visibility range is around five hundred meters, and it is impossible to fly in such conditions," noted Edwar Sanger, the regional disaster mitigation agencys chief.
The MI 171 and Sikorsky are the two helicopters prepared by the agency after another was sent to assist in the operations to extinguish forest fires in South Sumatra.
Edwar pointed out that both helicopters can only fly if the visibility reached 1.5 thousand meters.
The agency had planned to conduct water bombing operations on Tuesday in Riaus districts: Meranti Isle, Indragiri Hilir, and Indragiri Hulu.
"Hopefully, the smog would recede, so that we can fly and immediately put out the fires before they spread," Edwar noted.
Meanwhile, the agency is still relying on the ground team to put out the fires that are located in the three regions.
Earlier, Edwar had stated on Tuesday that smog was also a major problem being faced by the agency while operating the helicopters.
"Yesterday, we only managed to conduct water bombing in Siak. Alhamdulillah (Thank God), 12 hotspots were successfully extinguished. We wanted to fly to Indragiri Hilir and Indragiri Hulu, but the visibility was very poor," Edwar added.
The Meteorological, Climatology, and Geophysics Station (BMKG) in Pekanbaru on Wednesday detected 25 hotspots, with 22 believed to have arisen from forest fires at a confidence level of over 70 percent.
"Three hotspots were spread across Meranti, 12 in Indragiri Hilir, and seven in Indragiri Hulu," stated Head of BMKG in Pekanbaru Sugarin.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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