A man has his blood sample taken for rapid COVID-19 testing in South Tangerang, Indonesia's Banten province, on April 21 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA) Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo on May 11 stressed three focuses to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, namely scaling up tests, boosting surveillance on migrant workers who will come back home, and accelerating the production of medical equipment and COVID-19 medicine.
Addressing a Cabinet meeting, he requested PCR tests be sped up as laboratories across the country are currently able to handle just 4,000-5,000 samples each day, much lower than the target of 10,000.
The president ordered the COVID-19 task force to maximise the function of test facilities as only 53 have been licensed to conduct PCR tests, quicken manpower training, and deal with the scarcity of testing equipment and materials right this week.
He also told ministries, sectors and localities to make thorough preparations to receive 34,000 migrant workers who will return to the country in May and June, with tight health protocols to be imposed.
Meanwhile, units of the Ministry of Research and Technology and the Ministry of Education and Culture have successfully developed rapid and PCR test kits, ventilators and BSL-2 labs which can be produced on a large scale now, he said, expressing his hope that this will help the country reduce its dependence on imports./.
VNA
