Lengthy Swab Test Procedure Adds to High Mortality Rate, says IDI
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April 7, 2020 | 01:06 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Doctors Association (PB IDI) Slamet Budiarto revealed that one of the causes of Indonesia’s high coronavirus (COVID-19) mortality rate is due to the lengthy time to obtain results from swab tests.
The amount of time needed to produce results, he said, eventually does not enable healthcare workers to provide patients with proper medical treatment and casts doubt in a medical worker’s judgment as they must prioritize confirmed COVID-19 patients.
“Hospitals prioritize COVID-19 patients, the handling is still far from maximum,” said Slamet to Tempo on Tuesday, April 7.
He suggests the government conduct rapid PCR tests and Genexpert PCR tests that he claims would only need 45 minutes to produce results. The latter is often used in testing Tuberculosis (TB).
As of Monday, April 6, deaths due to coronavirus has increased to a nationwide total of 209. Compared to Indonesia’s 2,491 confirmed COVID-19 cases, this makes the death ratio 8.39 percent.
AHMAD FAIZ IBNU SANI
