More And More Specimen Testing Is The Reason The Positive Number Of COVID-19 Is Increasing

Illustrations (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Acceleration of COVID-19 Handling Doni Monardo said the number of positive cases of the corona virus or COVID has increased in recent times due to the increasing number of specimen testing through the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method.

"We see the increasing trend of positive cases has increased. Because our ability to test is increasing," Doni said in a press conference broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Monday, May 11.

When more and more specimens are tested, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 will continue to increase. Currently, priority sample testing is carried out on those who fall into the category of people under surveillance (ODP) and people without symptoms (OTG).

As for the report received by the Task Force for the Acceleration of Handling COVID-19, on May 8, as many as 9,630 specimens were examined. However, this figure declined again the next day, namely to 7,100 to 7,300.

The cause of the decline, said Doni, was a lack of human resources, as stated by President Joko Widodo.

So, Doni ordered the laboratory to recruit new personnel so that the target of 10 thousand tests per day could be achieved. For this reason, members of the TNI and Polri will be involved in meeting these resource needs.

Meanwhile, for the need for medical devices to support specimen testing, Doni has collaborated with the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) for one million PCR, RNA, and VTN reagents from various countries.

"This is expected to be sufficient for the next one month. Furthermore, the joint task force of the Ministry of Health will try to get reagents from several countries, especially from South Korea and China," he explained.

The number of referral patients is claimed to have decreased

Although he said positive cases of COVID-19 increased as the number of specimens tested, Doni again claimed that there was a decrease in the number of patients being treated at referral hospitals.

"The latest development, referral hospitals that have been determined by the Ministry of Health have experienced a significant decline," said the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

This decline is also shown by the number of patients who have recovered, he said. So, he hopes this condition will continue to happen.

"The number of recovered patients is increasing, new patients who are treated are getting fewer. If we can maintain this, we can automatically reduce our brothers and sisters who are seriously ill and chronically ill," he said.

The number of patients treated at the referral hospital in Jakarta consists of: 1. Fatmawati Hospital: Filled with 22 patients from 84 beds2. Mintoharjo Hospital: Filled with 18 patients from 55 beds3. Sukanto Police Hospital: Filled 65 patients from 240 beds 4. Pasar Minggu Hospital: Filled with 13 patients from 168 beds 5. Friendship Hospital: Filled 40 patients from 171 beds6. Pelni Hospital: Filled 89 patients from 163 beds7. Tarakan Hospital: Filled 53 patients from 151 beds 8. RSKD Duren Sawit: Filled 46 patients from 204 beds9. RSPI Sulianti Saroso: Filled 26 patients from 36 beds10. Pertamina Jaya Hospital: Filled with 34 patients from 155 beds11. Tugu Koja Hospital: Filled with 15 patients from 69 beds12. Cengkareng Hospital: Filled 67 patients from 154 beds