Encouraging Local Governments To Massively Test COVID-19 Specimens For The Community

Photo of testing disease samples (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The government, through the Ministry of Health (Ministry of Health), will authorize local governments to test patient specimens under the supervision of (suspect) the corona virus. This test was carried out in line with the increasing number of corona positive patients in Jakarta and a number of other areas.

Testing of patient specimens related to the corona virus or COVID-19 will be carried out at the Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes) of the Ministry of Health. Where the highest number of suspected cases of contracting COVID-19 were reported in DKI Jakarta.

With details of 835 people under surveillance, 356 patients under surveillance. The presence of specimen testing related to the corona virus will provide certainty to the public to determine the next steps in health services.

"After the Minister of Transportation tested positive, then there were also bank employees who were suspected of being infected, even though they interacted with many people on a daily basis. This means that the corona virus has spread everywhere. It takes drastic action from the government, it can't just rely on tracing, ”said the head of the PSI faction Idris Ahmad to reporters, Tuesday, March 17.

Even though there has been an order to test specimens related to the corona virus. However, the lack of information disclosure regarding the number of people who are under monitoring or surveillance, will make it difficult for the public to detect COVID-19.

"The biggest problem right now is that we cannot know for sure how many people have been affected by the corona and how it has spread. Could it be that the numbers are small because the number of tests being carried out is also not that many, "he said.

Therefore, continued Idris, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government must immediately develop a mass test specimen for the corona virus. Bearing in mind, the Minister of Health has given authority to two laboratories in Jakarta to become a network for these examinations.

Moreover, currently the Minister of Home Affairs has allowed regional heads to revise the 2020 Regional Budget (APBD) specifically for handling the corona virus.

"Therefore, we ask the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to immediately develop a mass corona virus test. At a minimum, it can provide tests for 5,000 people per day, even if possible, 10,000 tests per day like Vietnam, "said Idris.

Corona virus monitoring data in Jakarta (Corona.Jakarta.go.id Site)

For information, the Minister of Health issued a decree regarding the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Laboratory Network as of March 16 yesterday.

In content, the central government has authorized appointed COVID-19 testing laboratories in various regions to carry out screening examinations for COVID-19 specimens.

This examination uses forms and standard operating procedures that have been established by the national reference laboratory, namely the Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes).

When the specimen test of a suspect is declared negative for corona, this examining laboratory can inform the negative examination results to the hospital / health service / other health laboratory for fast detection (realtime) in order to enforce the diagnosis.

However, if the specimen test results are stated positive, the examining laboratory may not announce the results and only submit them directly by Balitbangkes. From Balitbangkes, positive announcements were made one door by the Ministry of Health.

Apart from Jakarta, the following are the working areas for the COVID-19 Examiner laboratories in a number of areas:

1. Central Jakarta Health Laboratory for working areas Maluku, North Maluku, West Sumatra, North Sumatra, and Aceh

2. Palembang Health Laboratory Center for Bengkulu, Babel, South Sumatra, Jambi and Lampung working areas

3. Makassar Health Laboratory Center for Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi working areas

4. Surabaya Health Laboratory Center for the working area of South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, Kaltara, and East Kalimantan

5. Papua Health Laboratory Center for Papua and West Papua working areas

6. The Jakarta Environmental Health and Disease Control Technical Center for the work areas of Riau, Riau Islands, West Java, West Kalimantan and Banten

7. Surabaya Environmental Health and Disease Control Technical Center for the working areas of Bali, East Java, NTT and NTB

8. Technical Center for Environmental Health and Disease Control, DI Yogyakarta for the work area of DI Yogyakarta and Central Java

9. Labkesda DKI Jakarta for the working area of DKI Jakarta

10. Eikman Institute for Molecular Biology for the DKI Jakarta working area

11. Faculty of Medicine UI for the working area of Cipto Mangunkusuomo Hospital and UI Hospital

12. Faculty of Medicine, Airlangga University for the working area of Dr Soetomo Hospital and Airlangga Univ Hospital.