Indonesia: Pandemic priority, anything but testing; Covid-19 cases blows over 575,000

A nurse takes a swab sample from a patient at the Tanah Abang district office in Central Jakarta. Swab tests, also called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, use mucus samples taken from the nose or throat to detect Covid-19. Indonesia announced on Sunday (Dec 6), its total cases now stands at 575,796. - The Jakarta Post/ANN

JAKARTA, Dec 6 (The Jakarta Post/ANN): It has been over nine months since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced the first Covid-19 cases in Indonesia in March, but the country has yet to see much improvement in its testing rate.

Despite Covid-19 awareness-raising campaigns, suspected virus cases and close contacts of confirmed cases are still having difficulty getting a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.