Minister Of Health Budi Gunadi Admits There Are Errors In Testing For COVID-19 In Indonesia

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin. (Photo: Doc. Setkab)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin admitted that there was something wrong with the strategy for implementing testing, tracing, and treatment or 3T by the government in an effort to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

This error mainly occurs in the implementation of testing strategies which then makes the spread of this virus unsuccessful in suppressing.

"The testing method is wrong. There are a lot of tests but how come it keeps on going up. After testing people like me. Every time I want to go to the president in a test, last night, I just took a swab. I got 5 swabs a week. Is that true?" Budi said in a webinar, Citizens' Dialogue: Vaccines and Us, West Java Economic Recovery and Transformation Committee, quoted on Friday, January 21.

According to him, this kind of testing is wrong because it should be done by those who suspect or have symptoms of COVID-19 and not done to people who want to travel or participate in certain events.

"Testing should not be like that. Testing should be, epidemiological testing, I was taught by my doctor friends, not independent testing. Those who are tested are suspected people, not people who want to go like Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who want to meet the president," he said.

"If this is the case, (testing one person, red) 5 times, yes the WHO standard is met 1 in 1,000 per week but there is no point in testing," he added.

So, in the future he hopes that this kind of error can be corrected immediately.

"Epidemiologically, things like that have to be resolved. Some are at my place, testing matters, asking for help from the local government because the puskesmas is not under me," he said.

It is known, as of January 21 yesterday the number of specimens that had been examined reached 8,560,220. In detail, 8,423,901 specimens were examined using real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and 136,319 using molecular rapid tests (TCM).

Meanwhile, positive cases of COVID-19 in the country since last year have reached 951,651 and of these 772,790 people have been declared cured and 27,203 of them have died.