PRESS RELEASE

Access and Number of Molecular Tests (PCR) and Good Death Registration as a Basis for Policy Making regarding Covid-19

JJakarta, May 11 2020. The plan to relax large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) has sparked controversy. This policy is considered not to be based on scientifically tested and transparent data, so there are concerns that it will increase the risk to public safety. In fact, Minister of Health Regulation no. 9 of 2020 concerning PSBB requires the need for scientific evidence to assess the success of PSBB implementation in reducing the number of new cases, before deciding on easing.

LaporCovid-19 collaborator, who is also a doctoral candidate in epidemiology from Griffith University, dr. Dicky Budiman said that the PSBB evaluation must be supported by valid data, especially the case reproduction rate (Ro) before and after the intervention. The intervention is considered successful if the Ro value decreases after the intervention until it approaches zero, which means that transmission no longer occurs. LaporCovid-19 together with its collaborators, reviewing official data from the government and citizen reports, concluded that obstacles to building good data include blockages in examining and reporting Covid-19 results and incomplete death reporting data. For examinations using molecular tests (PCR), even though the number is starting to increase, it has still not reached 10,000 tests per day as the government had targeted since a month ago. Until now, Indonesia still has a very low testing capacity per population, even among the lowest in Asia. Data on worldmeters.info on Sunday (10/5), Indonesia has only tested 552 people per million population. This number is smaller than the Philippines with 1,439 people per million, Malaysia which has tested 7,573 people per million, or South Korea with 12,949 people per million. This press release can be downloaded via the following link