"So far 57 media workers have tested positive for COVID-19 through PCR [polymerase chain reaction] tests. We also found six people whose rapid test results were reactive,” AJI Surabaya head Miftah Faridl told The Jakarta Post on Monday

Although Miftah did not identify the three dead journalists, he said that 54 of the 57 postive cases were employees of the Surabaya branch of national radio broadcaster Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI).

According to Faridl, RRI management had cooperated with the Surabaya Health Agency to carry out PCR tests on hundreds of RRI employees on June 26. However, since they had not received the results after some time, the management decided to ask the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) to conduct another round of PCR testing on July 6.

He said that the BNPB results came out on July 7, with all RRI Surabaya employees testing negative.

"However, on July 11, the Surabaya Health Agency released the results of the PCR tests and 54 people were found to be positive for COVID-19," Faridl said, adding that only two of the 54 employees had been hospitalized.

Due to the different results of the PCR tests, the RRI management conducted a third test on Monday.

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