In addition, the President also ordered that the PCR test results be made available within 24 hours.
By
kompas team
·4 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The high cost of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect Covid-19 has hampered Indonesia’s pandemic response. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has therefore called on the health minister to reduce the cost of the PCR test.
“One way to increase testing is to lower the price of the PCR tests, and I have spoken to the health minister about this. I asked that the cost of the PCR tests to be reduced to a range of between Rp 450,000 (US$32) and Rp 550,000," President Joko Widodo said on Sunday (15/8/2021) at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, in a video broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel.
In addition, the President also ordered that the PCR test results be made available within 24 hours. He also called for the expansion of Covid-19 testing during the community activity restrictions (PPKM). “One way to increase the number of tests is to lower the price,” he said.
However, the daily Covid-19 testing rate in Indonesia ranges between 100,000 and 150,000 people so far, with only half of the tests using the PCR method.
When the PPKM was first implemented in early July, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin promised to increase Indonesia’s Covid-19 testing rate to 500,000 people per day. However, the daily Covid-19 testing rate in Indonesia ranges between 100,000 and 150,000 people so far, with only half of the tests using the PCR method.
Earlier, the Health Ministry had set the maximum price of PCR tests at Rp 900,000 as stipulated in ministerial circular No. HK.02.02/I/3713/2020 on the maximum cost for Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
Test cost in India
Covid-19 tests in Indonesia cost among the highest in the world. India, for example, has cut the cost of PCR tests from 800 (Rp 155,000) rupees to 500 rupees (Rp 97,000), as India Today reported on 4 Aug. 2021. For Indian citizens self-testing at home, the price of PCR tests has been reduced from 1,200 rupees (Rp 233,000) to 700 rupees (Rp 136,000).
According to the Health Ministry, the cost of PCR tests in a number of ASEAN countries varies. In Malaysia, for example, PCR tests cost the ringgit equivalent of Rp 510,000, in Vietnam Rp 460,000, in the Philippines between Rp 437,000 and Rp 1.5 million, and in Singapore Rp 1.6 million. Meanwhile, PCR tests cost Rp 422,000 in Turkey, Rp 500,000 in Russia, and more than Rp 1.5 million in the United States.
The chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), Daeng M. Faqih, said that the people must have easier access to Covid-19 tests. "If people have limited access, the testing figure will not be optimal," he said.
Regarding the high cost of PCR tests, Daeng said this was partly due to imported components of PCR machines and test kits, as well astaxes on medical equipment. In Malaysia, medical equipment are tax-free to lower the health costs.
However, according to Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Wana Alamsyah, PCR tests should be cheaper in Indonesia, because according to Article 2 of Finance Minister Regulation No. 34/PMK.04/2020, medical equipment imported for Covid-19 handling, including PCR machines and test kits, were exempt from both import tax and income tax (PPH).
“The price of the PCR reagents ranges between Rp 180,000 and Rp 375,000. Compared to the cost of PCR tests set by the Health Ministry, they are five times higher," he said.
In light of the increasing Covid-19 caseload in regions that did not have laboratories for running PCR tests, Epidemiologist Iwan Ariawan from the School of Public Health at the University of Indonesia (UI) said that testing and contact tracing could be supported by rapid antigen tests, which were cheaper and faster.
Singapore also uses antigen tests to support its PCR testing measures. Septian Hartono, an Indonesian health practitioner who works in Singapore who is also an activist with the KawalCOVID19 civil initiative, said, “In Singapore, for epidemiological investigations, people who have a history of contact [with a confirmed case] or live in areas where there are Covid-19 cases receive free PCR testing.”
People with a cough or other cold symptoms who visit a private clinic are asked to undergo both an antigen test and a PCR test. (WKM/AIK/TAN/EVY)
(This article was translated byHendarsyah Tarmizi).