The head of Malang s health agency said on Tuesday that there was no request for ambulances and paramedics to be on standby for the football match that killed at least 125 people in Indonesia.
It's usually like that based on requests made by the police or the competition organising committee.
But the request we received from Malang regency police was for COVID - 19 vaccines to be present during the match, according to Wijoyo, who told CNA.
He said that it was to encourage people to get COVID 19 vaccines as Indonesia is trying to increase the take-up rate of booster shots.
According to Mr Wijoyo, there may have been ambulances from a private hospital at the stadium last Saturday when the match between Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya ended in a stampede. He could not verify this.
He said it is not a problem if private institutions help out, but the request should have been made to the health agency as well.
They should have sent a request to us as the authority in the regency.