“From 230 tests, it turned out there was one positive case. [The person is] now being treated at Hasan Sadikin Hospital,” Ridwan said at Gedung Sate in Bandung on Wednesday. “That person looked healthy. We must be careful and not wait for the symptoms [to show].”

Ridwan did not specify how the patient had been infected but he said the person had been isolated so as not to infect others.

West Java has taken proactive steps to conduct sample examinations to test residents who are suspected of having the coronavirus, but do not display symptoms, and to accelerate receiving the test results to within hours.

West Java Health Agency head Berli Hamdani Gelung Sakti said the tests they applied required two samples using nose and throat swabs, which would be brought to the health laboratory for polymerase chain reaction examinations.

“[The test kits] are in support of the Medical School of Padjadjaran University and the Bandung Institute of Technology,” Berli said.

Ridwan said the universities’ laboratories were at “biosafety level two”. 

According to labmanager.com, biosafety level two would cover work with agents associated with human disease: in other words, pathogenic or infectious organisms posing a moderate hazard. 

Meanwhile, the West Java Health Laboratory, which is the nation's referral center for tuberculosis, was certified at biosafety level 2+.

The West Java administration previously planned to allocate two waves of funding for coronavirus response from the regional disaster management fund, one of Rp 24 billion (US$1.6 million) and the other of Rp 50 billion.

Ridwan said the first allocation was increased to Rp 47 billion under the approval of the West Java Council. He said the budget would be used for purchasing more test kits.

Indonesia has recorded 227 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 19 deaths and 11 recovered cases as of Wednesday.

West Java Information and Coordination Center for COVID-19 reported the province had 11 confirmed cases, while the number of people under monitoring was 1,004 and of patients under surveillance in isolation rooms was 101 people as of Wednesday. (syk)