Indonesia Submits A Request For COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test Aid To WHO

JAKARTA - The government has submitted a request to representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Indonesia to obtain an antigen-based rapid test kit.

The new tool recommended by WHO is considered more accurate, compared to the antibody-based rapid test kits that have been used in Indonesia so far.

"We have communicated with WHO representatives in Indonesia and we have asked to be considered for this rapid test assistance," said Wiku Adisasmito, spokesperson for the Task Force (Task Force) on handling COVID-19 in a press conference broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Thursday. , October 1.

This request was submitted by Indonesia, because currently, WHO has provided 120 million antigen-based rapid tests for 133 countries.

The countries that become priority are countries with medium income and countries that have a large number of cases.

If this assistance is obtained, later on, this antigen-based rapid test will be used as a first step in tracking cases prior to the swab test. However, this is still under study.

"We are reviewing it for the next possible use and of course higher accuracy and because this is an antigen detection, it is better in the context of the screening process prior to diagnosis with realtime PCR," said Wiku.

Regarding this antigen rapid test tool, WHO has indeed provided recommendations to replace the rapid test with blood samples that have been used so far.

This rapid test specimen will be collected from the larynx and nose and the results will be known in a matter of a few minutes.