A man has his blood sample taken for rapid COVID-19 testing in South Tangerang, Indonesia's Banten province, on April 21 (Photo: Xinhua/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo on May 11 stressed three focuses to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, namely scaling uptests, boosting surveillance on migrant workers who will come back home, andaccelerating the production of medical equipment and COVID-19 medicine.
Addressing a Cabinet meeting, he requested PCRtests be sped up as laboratories across the country are currently able tohandle just 4,000-5,000 samples each day, much lower than the target of10,000.
The president ordered the COVID-19 taskforce to maximise the function of test facilities as only 53 havebeen licensed to conduct PCR tests, quicken manpower training, and deal withthe scarcity of testing equipment and materials right this week.
He also told ministries, sectors andlocalities to make thorough preparations to receive 34,000 migrant workers whowill return to the country in May and June, with tight health protocols to beimposed.
Meanwhile, units of the Ministry of Researchand Technology and the Ministry of Education and Culture have successfullydeveloped rapid and PCR test kits, ventilators and BSL-2 labs which can beproduced on a large scale now, he said, expressing his hope that this will helpthe country reduce its dependence on imports./.
VNA
