Recently, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), whose significant involvement in the country's pandemic response has raised questions and criticism from civil society organizations, rejected a report by Tempo magazine that its PCR tests were inaccurate.

The BIN, which has received Rp 5.57 trillion of the COVID-19 response budget, said false positives and negatives were found in other countries as well and that several factors affected test results among different labs.

"There are some factors that can affect differences in swab test [results]. They include the machine’s condition, the time of the test, the patient’s condition and testing kit quality," the agency's spokesperson Wawan Hari Purwanto said in a statement.

Experts told The Jakarta Post it would only be fair to compare test results if samples were taken at the same time and were sent to different labs that had the same PCR settings.

Indonesia operates some 263 labs for COVID-19 testing, and they have a variety of machines and testing kits. But even before samples reach labs, certain variations can affect results, including when and how samples are taken, transported and stored.

"PCR tests show the best results within the first three days of the onset of symptoms – if patients show any symptoms at all – because that's when the viral load is believed to be at the highest level," said Maria Lucia Inge Lusida, a professor of clinical microbiology at Airlangga University (Unair).

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