TheJakartaPost
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In order to discover the virus, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) devices amplify the sample’s genetic material in cycles. The fewer cycles required to spot the virus, or the lower the CT value is, the higher the estimated viral load a sample may contain. Although studies are still limited, it is believed that the lower the CT value is -- also indicating a higher viral load -- the more infectious a person is, and vice versa.
As Indonesia struggles to suppress COVID-19 cases and deaths, government officials appear to be shifting the blame to hospitals by raising claims of false diagnoses -- which medical professionals say would erode public trust and further delay treatments, all the while missing the core of the problem: long testing turnaround times.
“Insya Allah [God willing], we have enough medical equipment. However, we are short of [medical] workers, while the number of patients keeps rising,” pulmonologist Faisal Rizal Matondang from the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital (RSPI) said.
As the coronavirus rippled across the world's fourth most populous country, it also carried a stigma that public health experts say has stopped people from getting tested in fear of being shunned, and complicated the response to the pandemic.
