The satellite laboratory was built on part of the land of Pasar Minggu Regional General Hospital since April 9, 2020.Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Jakarta provincial government has built a COVID-19 satellite laboratory under the endeavors to boost the capacity of COVID-19 testing through rapid test and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods.
"The satellite laboratory was built on part of the land of the Pasar Minggu Regional General Hospital since April 9, 2020," Head of the Health Resource Section of the Jakarta Health Office Ani Ruspitawati remarked in Jakarta on Monday.
The Health Office has also set up networking facility to link the satellite laboratory to 27 COVID-19 testing laboratories to step up the testing capacity, she explained.
As of May 17, a total of 110 thousand samples from across Jakarta were tested through the PCR method, she confirmed.
On May 17, the PCR test was conducted on 2,078 people. A total of 1,180 tests were conducted to strengthen the diagnosis of new cases, with 88 people testing positive and 1,092 others testing negative for COVID-19.
"Until today, May 18, 2020, the regional health laboratories in Jakarta have conducted PCR analysis on 25,480 samples, with the average daily testing capacity of the regional health laboratories reaching 846 specimens and the number of samples at the COVID-19 satellite laboratory reaching 576," he stated.
Jakarta recorded a total of 6,010 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus as of Monday (May 18), with 1,301 people recovering and 483 others succumbing to the disease, the Jakarta Health Office stated.
The number of recoveries accounted for 22 percent of the confirmed coronavirus cases, while the number of deaths constituted eight percent, Ruspitawati stated at the Jakarta City Hall earlier in the day.
"Meanwhile, 1,958 patients are still receiving medical treatment at hospitals, and 2,268 others are self-isolating at home," she remarked.
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Translator: Ricky Prayoga/Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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