TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Eijkman-Oxford Clinical Research Unit (EOCRU) researcher Iqbal Elyazar demanded the government to reveal the actual test sample data of Indonesia’s ODP and PDP suspected COVID-19 cases.

Indonesia differentiates suspected COVID-19 cases into two categories, with the first being ODP or people under monitoring and PDP that are patients under monitoring which refers to hospitalized patients that show symptoms of coronavirus but have yet been confirmed by clinical test results.

This pressure came after the government adjusted how it presents the data of the two categories. Prior to this adjustment, the government’s COVID-19 task force presented an accumulation of the two categories but are now only showing active ODP and PDP cases.

Those under monitoring drastically reduced as the accumulated data per May 17 showed 270,876 ODP and 35,800 PDP cases whereas the new model shows 45,047 ODP and 11,422 PDP.

Iqbal Elyazar maintains that he does not question the change of data gathering but “needs information on how many PCR samples have been obtained from patients filed under the two categories.”

Based on the COVID-19 task force’s guideline, PDP or ODP cases must undergo antibody tests and must self-isolate themselves once the results are produced and are subjected to follow up tests ten days prior to their self-isolation. If results come back positive, both ODP and PDP patients must undergo PCR-based coronavirus tests for the following two consecutive days.

TEMPO.CO | SYAILENDRA PERSADA