Early Detection Of COVID-19, Pharmaceutical BUMN Ready To Fulfill Rapid Test Needs

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The increasingly massive spread of the corona virus or COVID-19 in the country has prompted the government to bring in a rapid test kit to detect the virus. BUMN companies in the pharmaceutical sector stated that they are ready to bring in the test kits that are currently needed by many hospitals.

One of the pharmaceutical BUMNs, PT Indofarma Tbk INAF, admitted that it was ready to meet the need for rapid test kits for the detection of the corona virus or COVID-19 in the country. As many as 100 thousand corona rapid test packages will be imported from China and Korea.

President Director of Indofarma Arief Pramuhanto said that currently all hospitals in all regions of Indonesia are in need of this tool. It guarantees that it will fulfill the request.

"We serve requests from wherever we serve, because people really need them. We try to serve whatever people ask from any health facility. But we have to go through health facilities, hospitals and clinics," he said, when contacted by VOI, in Jakarta, Monday, 23 March.

Arief explained that all medical devices ordered from China will arrive in Indonesia on Wednesday, March 25, or at the latest Thursday, March 26. "For Korea, the fastest is next week," he said.

For your information, the rapid test is one of the tests to detect the corona virus or COVID-19. This rapid test tool works by taking a sample of the patient's blood. According to Arief, this test kit will later be distributed to emergency hospitals and clinics.

"There are so many orders from us. Maybe around 100 (hospitals) exist. Clinics are 25 percent," he said.

Arief said that his party would also meet the needs of Wisma Atlet. "Separate (fulfillment), we really prioritize. That's specifically for suffering from COVID-19," he said.

"It depends on their request. For example, this week they asked for 5,000, yes we will provide it. Next week, we will ask for how much we provide, that's all. Whatever the need we supply," he continued.

Previously, the Indonesian Parliament encouraged the central government to accelerate the procurement of large numbers of COVID-19 rapid detectors to strengthen early prevention and rapid handling of people under surveillance (ODP) and patients under surveillance (PDP) suspected of the corona virus.

Member of Commission I DPR RI Muhammad Farhan said, the availability of a rapid test for COVID-19 is considered to be effective in stopping significant transmission. According to him, the provision of rapid tests is very capable of being carried out by the government because the capabilities of domestic scientists and pharmaceutical companies are already qualified.

"While waiting for the development of an anti-virus vaccine that causes COVID-19, the government must speed up the manufacture and distribution of rapid test kits to detect early levels of the spread of the SARS COV-2 virus that causes the corona," Farhan said in a release on Thursday, March 19.