Three more army hospitals are also set to get mobile PCR labs, Army Chief of Staff, General Andika Perkasa, said in a statement here on Tuesday after a teleconference with heads of health services at regional military commands across Indonesia.
The Defense Ministry has been tasked with supplying the mobile PCR laboratory facilities to the 17 army hospitals. It has also provided several hospitals with containers.
According to the Army Chief of Staff's Logistics Assistant, Major General Jani Iswanto, the hospitals who have received containers include Bandar Lampung, Bratanata Jambi, Kencana Serang, Soetarto Yogyakarta, and Wijaya Kusuma Purwokerto.
In July this year, General Andika Perkasa had said that to expedite COVID-19 handling, the army was collaborating with the Airlangga University for COVID-19 medicines.
To support the government's COVID-19 efforts, the Indonesian Army has also tried to provide stocks of medical equipment and pushed the clinical trials of the combined COVID-19 medicine at army hospitals, he stated.
COVID-19 initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 and then spread across the world, including to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indonesian government made an official announcement regarding the country's first confirmed cases on March 2 this year.
The Indonesian government has consistently expressed confidence in the potential of the COVID-19 vaccine to help it win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has posed a serious threat to public health and economy.
Over the past few months, the government has made all-out efforts to secure the procurement and supply of potential COVID-19 vaccines for Indonesians through a bilateral and multilateral cooperation scheme.
The government is also supporting research efforts for developing the country's own COVID-19 vaccine, Merah Putih (Red and White), named after the colors of the national flag.
Indonesia is also cooperating bilaterally with China and the United Kingdom for the procurement and supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
The archipelagic nation secured access to COVID-19 vaccines from China after a meeting between the Indonesian delegation and the representatives of Cansino, G42, Sinopharm, and Sinovac in China on October 10 this year. (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Zuhdiar L, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
