Covid-19 Sample Examined in Unpad Lab Decreases after Case Surge
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Laila Afifa
Jumat, 20 Agustus 2021 06:22 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Bandung - The number of Covid-19 samples taken at the Level-2 Bio Safety Laboratory of Padjadjaran University (Unpad) for examination has decreased following the spike in cases last July. Currently, only around 100-300 samples are being examined daily. Some of them are for air travel requirements.
Head of the Bio Safety Laboratory Level-2 of Padjadjaran University (BSL-2 Unpad), Lia Faridah, said the lab is one of the government's referral locations that has a large capacity. The laboratory at Jalan Eyckman, Bandung, was asked to test some 7,000 samples per day since the government increased Covid tracking and tracing. "[But] the fact is that the samples that come in are also few," he said, Wednesday, August 18, 2021.
Unpad BSL-2 Lab applies a paid examination, said Lia, because the government and the university do not fully cover the cost for Covid-19 samples test. The common PCR test price is set at Rp400,000, while the one with quicker result is set at Rp495,000. The price is much cheaper than the prvious price cap set by the government at Rp900,000 which was recently reduced by about half. "Our mission is to make it easier, cheaper with valid results for the people," Lia added.
The Unpad BSL-2 Lab received the extraction and PCR reagents from the government for the next four months.
Unpad's BSL-2 laboratory had been receiving samples of refferal Covid-19 patients from cities and regencies in West Java as well as the general public who came for examination. "Now, [the samples] mostly come from the general public who want to fly," she said.
During the cas surge, the total number of samples examined daily could reach 1,000-2,000. Meanwhile, at other times, the number of samples examined was usually at least 500 or an average of 800 samples per day. "Now [it's only] at most 100 to 300, this also happens to other labs," Lia remarked, adding that other labs in Bandung which serve free Covid-19 test now only gets 300 samples for examination per day from normally 2000.
Read: Padjadjaran University Develops COVID-19 Detector Called CePAD
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