Silent War of Young Lab Analysts in NTT

The sudden decision to close down the Biomolecular Laboratory of the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Health Office is an irony. The facility spearheads Covid-19 tests run by young analysts in the province.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

Laboratory staff extracted samples from the Covid-19 examination at the Public Health Biomolecular Laboratory of East Nusa Tenggara Province in Kupang City, NTT, on Monday (30/8/2021).

Lintang Dima, 25, donned a hazmat suit, multiple masks, and a face shield on Monday (30/8/2021). Alone in a room with a temperature measuring 20 degrees Celsius and a pressure of minus 10, the female health worker transferred a sample of mucus from a viral transport medium (VTM) to a new container for extraction.

A VTM is nothing but a medium for storing Covid-19 swab samples. Then, she transferred the sample to a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machine.

Her face showed exhaustion after completing the two-hour test at the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Health Office’s Biomolecular Laboratory.

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Six to eight hours later, analyst Erni Sustika Jawa studied the results of the PCR test. Erni, 24, sat in front of a computer monitor, entering numbers, letters, and symbols into the column of a table. The work required full concentration to ensure accurate results. There could be no mistakes.

“It has to be checked, verified, reread, examined. There must be no mistakes," said Erni.

In the room, 18 young people under the age of 30 were standing by to work day and night in processing samples and analyzing the test results. On occasion, they had to take samples directly from the residents.

“We share the tasks between 18 people. But on average, we can all do everything, from taking swabs to [test] analysis," said NTT Biomolecular Lab spokeswoman Lina Selan.

We live in the middle of a virus ‘hot spot’, so we have to be careful

The lab technicians start work at 8 a.m. and finish no later than 3 a.m. the next morning. Initially, they were volunteers, but the government promoted them to contract employees on salaries based on the regional minimum wage of Rp 2.1 million.

Their income does not match their workload or the risks they face. On an average day, they check up to 320 samples. By Monday (30/8), they had tested 15,143 samples for Covid-19.

They undergo regular PCR tests each week. Five team members have contracted Covid-19 and are now recovering.

"We live in the middle of a virus ‘hot spot’, so we have to be careful," said Lina.

KOMPAS/FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN

The Public Health Biomolecular Laboratory Team of East Nusa Tenggara Province took swab samples from residents for the Covid-19 test at the Karmel Monastery, Kupang City, NTT, on Monday (30/8/2021).

Maintaining the lab

NTT has not been able to control the spread of Covid-19. As of 1 Sept. 2021, the province had 59,449 Covid-19 cases and 1,196 deaths.

The laboratory is very useful in testing samples. The lab even helps provide PCR tests for travelers needing immediate assistance, such as people who want to study outside NTT. The testing service is free.

"If a PCR test is conducted elsewhere, we have to pay. This is a big burden for those of us who come from poor families. The free PCR [test] really helps us," said Kapenga Taba Homba, 22, a resident of Sumba Island who wants to study in Malang, East Java. A PCR test in Kupang city still costs more than Rp 500,000.

In the midst of the people’s appreciation, the Kupang Health Office made a sudden decision last week to close the lab, on the grounds that it did not to meet the Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) standard. The closure was announced after the lab’s pathologist resigned and the laboratory manager was reported to the NTT Police.

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University of Nusa Cendana (Undana) rector Fredrik L. Benu once had an argument with the lab management regarding its location on the Undana campus.

The closure of the laboratory, inaugurated on 16 Oct. 2020 by former health minister Terawan Agus Putranto and NTT Governor Viktor B. Laiskodat, stunned the public. The laboratory was established under the collaboration of three entities, namely the NTT provincial administration, the NTT Academia Forum, and Undana.

The polemic was finally brought to a meeting with Commission IV of the NTT Legislative Council (DPRD) on Friday (27/8). The meeting reached an agreement that the laboratory would continue to operate. The lab management was asked to find a replacement pathologist.

Elcid Li from the NTT Academia Forum said that the existence of a laboratory equipped with a PCR machine was the innovation of two NTT experts, namely Fima Inabuy and Alfred Kono. Public support was needed to keep the flame burning for the young people "fighting" in silence.

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.