TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Yogyakarta Government on Tuesday, March 17, has officially started the operation of the coronavirus testing laboratory under the region’s Center for Environmental Health Engineering and Disease Control (BTKLPP) in Bantul, Yogyakarta.

The facility was appointed by the Indonesian Health Ministry to conduct sample tests from people who are believed to contract the plague in the region. This will greatly reduce precious time to determine a person’s status as samples would no longer have to be sent to the official COVID-19 lab in Jakarta.

“The sample tests will be conducted in two facilities located in Central Java and Yogyakarta which will accelerate test results that enable [the government] to break the chain of [coronavirus] transmission,” said BTKLPP chief, Irene, on Wednesday, March 18.

The operations of the coronavirus testing lab will be directly overseen by Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X. The governor also said that results from sample tests in both of the facilities will be announced much quicker than the method that Indonesia initially adopted.

Previously, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto appointed 12 laboratories that are able to conduct coronavirus tests, which include the Yogyakarta Center for Environmental Health Engineering and Disease Control.

Up until Wednesday, two more patients were declared positive for COVID-19 in Yogyakarta. The region also did not declare the area as a red zone as the previous cases found in the region were not deemed local transmissions.

PRIBADI WICAKSONO