Indonesia's Covid-19 Testing is Minimal and Vulnerable to Corruption
JAKARTA Covid-19 testing in Indonesia is still a problem even though the pandemic has been going on for more than a year. Apart from the number still being minimal and uneven, Covid-19 tests are also vulnerable to corruption through counterfeiting and using used test kits. Without strict government supervision, this bad practice will continue.
PRESS RELEASE
Indonesia's Covid-19 Testing is Minimal and Vulnerable to Corruption
JAKARTA - Covid-19 testing in Indonesia is still a problem even though the pandemic has been going on for more than a year. Apart from the number still being minimal and uneven, Covid-19 tests are also vulnerable to corruption through counterfeiting and using used test kits. Without strict government supervision, this bad practice will continue.
Disclosure of use of test equipment swab Used antigen at Kualanamu Airport, North Sumatra, shows weak supervision of Covid-19 tests in Indonesia. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Covid-19 testing problem in Indonesia. "It could be that the same method is also used at airports and other laboratories," said Amanda Tan, a LaporCovid19 volunteer, Saturday (1/5/2021).
As previously reported by the media, the North Sumatra Regional Police named five suspects for using used antigen swab test kits at the Kimia Farma Laboratory at Kualanamu Airport. The suspect has been in action since December 2020 with estimated victims of around 30,000 people. They even earned IDR 1.8 billion.
Prior to that, public complaints about falsification of PCR or antigen test results had also occurred repeatedly. One thing that was revealed, was at a community health center in Mojokerto, East Java, recently. Falsification of test result letters has also occurred at Soekarno Hatta Airport since November 2020, involving laboratory staff and travel agents.
Apart from endangering public safety, poor implementation of this test is also vulnerable to acts of corruption and collusion. So far, we haven't heard of any brand validation either rapid antigens used in Indonesia. Is it in accordance with what WHO recommends? he said.
An investigative report by Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) together with a number of media outlets revealed that many hospitals returned hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 test kits to BNPB. The potential state loss is predicted to be around IDR 170 billion from the procurement of these test kits.
The problems range from the quality of reagents to poor VTM (viral transport medium). This shows the vulnerability of corruption in test procurement, which can have a direct impact on public safety. Security forces need to monitor the implementation of tests at various airports and laboratories, he said.
This condition is also ironic given the lack of Covid-19 testing in Indonesia. For example, the Ministry of Health's report on April 30 2021 showed that the number of people examined using RT-PCR was only 26,939 people, TCM (molecular rapid test) 246 people, and antigen 24,479 people.
This number is grossly inadequate. Especially for PCR tests which have a very high level of accuracy. The lack of testing can be seen from the high positivity rate in Indonesia, which on average is still above 10 percent or twice the safe threshold recommended by WHO, namely 5 percent.
Apart from the limited number of tests, the coverage of Covid-19 tests in Indonesia is also not evenly distributed. Jakarta still dominates inspections. On April 30, the proportion of PCR tests carried out in Jakarta reached 36% of all tests nationally.
Another problem is the poor transparency in reporting the number and results of tests in each region. So far, only Jakarta has consistently reported the number of tests daily to the public. In fact, the public has the right to know test information. This data is also the basis for government policy, continued Amanda.
The LaporCovid19 team also received complaints from residents regarding the use of antigen tests which were not 100 percent accurate like the PCR method. The antigen test results, for example, stated negative for Covid-19, but after the PCR test the results showed positive for Covid-19.
This is serious because swab "antigens are widely used as a condition for travel, meetings and so on," said Amanda, imitating the resident's report.
Amanda reminded that testing is one of the keys to controlling the pandemic by the government, apart from tracking and isolation. He urged the government to tighten supervision of Covid-19 tests, provide the latest data, and improve the quality and quantity of tests. "Without this effort, handling the pandemic in Indonesia will drag on, cost lives and have implications for the socio-economic life of the community," he said.
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