National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Doni Monardo, who is also the head of Indonesia's rapid-response team for COVID-19, said he would soon ask relevant ministries and agencies to facilitate permits and ease access to ship the testing kits to the archipelago.

“The rapid testing kits are not yet available in the country, so we have to bring them in from several countries, reflecting what has been done by countries such as China, South Korea and Japan,” Doni told reporters following a meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Thursday.

Doni said Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto had given directions to his team about the government's plan on conducting rapid tests during a ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

The Health Ministry’s disease control and prevention director general, Achmad Yurianto, announced the plan during Wednesday's update of coronavirus cases in the country, describing that rapid tests only required blood serum as a sample and could be performed at any health laboratory.

Read also: Jokowi orders nationwide rapid testing to speed up COVID-19 detection

The Foreign Ministry has echoed Doni’s statement, saying they were now trying to draw up offers of testing kit donations from some foreign allies, including China and Singapore.

“At the same time, we are still waiting for the assessment on the required amount [of testing kits] from relevant authorities, before we extend [the request] to foreign parties,” the ministry's director for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Santo Darmosumarto, said.

Aside from foreign governments, Santo said, several community groups and corporations had also expressed their willingness to donate test kits to assist the country in its efforts to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests.

Meanwhile, Arya Sinulingga, an aide to State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir, said a number of COVID-19 rapid testing kits were set to be shipped to Indonesia starting Thursday, although he did not specify which countries the kits were coming from.

He said state-owned diversified manufacturer PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia -- which had previously planned to import 500,000 COVID-19 rapid testing kits from China -- would handle the distribution of the testing kits to coronavirus referral hospitals.

"The rapid testing kits are in accordance with the World Health Organization's standard," Arya said.

Read also: Think you have COVID-19? Here's how to get tested in Indonesia

Besides test kits, the government is also preparing more isolation and treatment sites to support the plan.

BNPB's Doni said the government would make more hospitals available to accept COVID-19 patients in addition to the 130 existing referral hospitals. He assessed that Jakarta and the surrounding area were still lacking such facilities.

“There are three private hospitals that have been authorized and two more will follow, with capacity reaching 1,000 beds,” Doni said.

A joint team conducted a survey of the two apartment towers for athletes in Kemayoran and confirmed that the buildings were viable to function as COVID-19 facilities and house around 2,000 patients. A number of hotel owners -- who saw their businesses slowing down due to the virus outbreak -- had also offered their buildings to support efforts to handle the pandemic, he added.

The fast-response team has requested that the Health Ministry increase the number of laboratories to 40 from the current 12, by utilizing those that were used during the SARS pandemic.

As of Thursday afternoon, the number of infected people in the country has reached 309. The death toll rose to 25 from 19, with 68 percent of the fatalities recorded in Jakarta.

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