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Indonesia seeks to increase production of COVID-19 PCR test kits
Currently, state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma is producing around 50,000 test kits per week.
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Moment of truth: A nurse takes a swab sample from a man at the Tanah Abang district office in Central Jakarta on Sunday. (JP/P.J.Leo)
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span style="font-size:12px;">The government is aiming to increase the country's production capacity of COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kits to 2 million units a month, Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said on Monday.
“Should Indonesia be able to produce the number, [we] will be able to meet domestic needs,” Muhadjir said, adding that the idea had been conveyed to President “Jokowi” Widodo, who was also supportive of the plan.
Currently, state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma is producing around 50,000 test kits per week.
To achieve the target, Muhadjir said the government would convert a facility that was previously used for the production of avian influenza vaccine.
“The President has approved the plan and we will soon conduct inter-ministerial coordination so that the PCR kits can really be produced at home, which would make us independent from imports,” he said.
Muhadjir said Bio Farma would prepare the construction design for the production facility, while the Public Works and Housing Ministry would do the reconstruction based on the design.
Indonesia has steadily ramped up its COVID-19 testing capacity, from an average of around 4,000 specimens tested daily in April to around 13,000 specimens tested daily since the end of May. However, the country still has among the lowest testing rates in the world, with around 2,300 tests per 1 million population as of Monday.
