TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government has officially lowered the price of the polymerase chain reaction or PCR swab test. In Java and Bali, the price is cut to Rp275,000, while in other islands the maximum price is capped at Rp300,000.

"Based on evaluations results, we agreed to lower the maximum price limit for PCR tests to IDR 275,000 in the islands of Java and Bali, and to IDR 300,000 outside Java and Bali," the Health Ministry's director general of health services Abdul Kadir said in a statement during the online press conference, Wednesday, October 27.

The price of getting a PCR test in Indonesia has lowered several times since the pandemic started. At the beginning, the tariff was very high, up to more than Rp2.5 million per test.

Yesterday, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for Covid-19 Vaccination, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the ministry—along with the Covid-19 Task Force and the Transportation Ministry—was reviewing the possibility to cut the tariffs, following President Joko Widodo's instructions to lower the price to Rp300,000.

Jokowi's request for a lower PCR test price was delivered by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan at a press conference on Monday.

Read: YLKI Calls for PCR Test Cost Transparency

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