The Price Of The Swab Test Is Not Uniform, The COVID-19 Task Force: Still In Process

Illustrations (Photo: Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The government is still trying to standardize the cost of the COVID-19 swab test. The Task Force for Handling COVID-19 stated that the government was in the process of conducting discussions.

"Regarding the PCR swab price, the government is still in the process of equalizing the PCR swab test ceiling in Indonesia," Wiku said in an online press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, September 24.

If later the talks have agreed on a swabbing test ceiling in Indonesia, he said, the government will immediately announce it to the public.

"We are trying hard so that people can get the cheapest and affordable prices," he said.

While regarding the rapid test or rapid test that has recently been in the spotlight, he said, testing with this method is not a step to diagnose someone positive for COVID-19. "So the rapid test is a screening," he said.

Even though it is not a diagnostic tool, a rapid test is still a requirement for traveling because this is regulated in a regulation issued by the Ministry of Transportation. He also emphasized that the government is still striving for more accurate alternative detection or screening methods and one of them is rapid swab using antigens.

Previously, the DPR urged the government to immediately uniform the price of a swab test using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to detect COVID-19.

"Yes, it is necessary, so that we work together to deal with COVID-19 and those who are economically able can carry out a swab test independently," said Deputy Chairman of Commission IX Sri Rahayu when contacted by VOI, Wednesday, September 16.

He said, in the Commission IX hearing with echelon I of the Ministry of Health, today, the DPR has questioned the threshold price for this PCR test. The Ministry of Health has roughly calculated the cost of the test. The result is IDR 1.5 million for one swab test.

"Commission IX in the RDP with Echelon I of the Ministry of Health questioned this to the PLT Director General of Health Services, Prof. Khadir, asking to calculate the actual cost of the PCR swab. He conveyed that from a rough calculation the cost of PCR swabs which had been added by 20 percent was Rp1,542,000 which was rounded off to Rp1,500,000. , "said Sri.

Meanwhile, when contacted by VOI separately, Deputy Chairman of Commission IX of the DPR Melki Laka Lena said that the government is carefully calculating the cost of this test swab. He hopes the government will find a suitable price and announce it soon.

"We received information that the government is again in the process of calculating the correct price. We hope that the government, especially the Ministry of Health, will immediately respond to this matter," he said.