WhatsApp group helps tackle bed shortage for Indonesia's Covid-19 patients as pandemic total goes above 1.21 million

The Covid-19 resilient shelter which Sonjo, a Whatsapp community group, helped to set up.- BANTUL HEALTH OFFICE/The Straits Times-ANN

JAKARTA, Feb 14 (The Straits Times/ANN): A grassroots movement in one of Indonesia's worst-hit regions for Covid-19 has emerged to ease a crisis in healthcare in the country with hospitals unable to cope as patient numbers surge.

Last month, Sonjo, a WhatsApp community group in Yogyakarta, a province on Java island, tapped into their network to help the district government turn a disused hospital into an isolation facility to house Covid-19 patients with moderate to no symptoms.