Indonesian Doctors Demand Govt Provide PCR Rapid Tests

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Slamet Budiarto, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), urged the government to provide rapid test facilities using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), also known as the swab kits, to detect Coronavirus infections.

"The government must immediately provide PCR rapid tests," Slamet told Tempo, Tuesday, April 7.

Slamet said PCR rapid tests are needed so that results can come out sooners. Right now, the swab test results take up to two weeks, resulting in slow, late treatment.

Slamet said hospitals prioritize treatment for patients who tested positive for Covid-19. As a result, those who are still suspects are not getting the best treatments, and therefore many died before their test results came out.

He hopes the government will provide swab test kits that can produce results in one day, as it really influences the mortality rate and the spread of the Coronavirus.

"It also prevents transmission," he said.

Minister of Research and Technology and head of BRIN Bambang Brodjonegoro had admitted there were still obstacles in conducting PCR tests. There is a lack of human resources with knowledge on specimen testing, especially conducting tests in the level 2 and level 3 biosafety laboratories (BSL). 

"Those are very limited in Indonesia," he said.

To overcome these obstacles, the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)—member of the research and technology consortium for Covid-19—uses its level 3 biosafety lab train volunteers to work at the laboratory with a minimum level of BSL-2.

Bambang said the government is also developing a mobile test kit for the Covid-19 PCR diagnostic test.

"This is a kind of mobile level 2 BSL that supports swab test in places without level 2 biosafety laboratories or its equivalent," he said.

Friski Riana