Deputy Minister of BUMN I Budi Gunadi Sadikin has revealed that the state-owned company will soon produce non-invasive ventilators. Production is estimated to reach 750-1,250 ventilators per week.
The ventilator production is to be carried out by state universities, BBPT together with PT Dirgantara Indonesia, PT Pindad, and PT LEN. According to Budi, in addition to the ventilators, pharmaceutical company BUMN will also produce drugs needed to handle COVID-19 such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, and azhitromycin.
“The ventilators are currently in the process of testing and certification. It is targeted that the production process will start in the third week of May 2020,” Budi said.
Slowly, the capacity of the domestic health industry is being increased. “We are also not anti-import. Indeed, there are some things that cannot be done (domestically), but what we can do must be able to,” BUMN Minister Erick Thohir said.
The BUMN Ministry itself has operated Pertamina Jaya Hospital as a place to treat patients infected with coronavirus. Pertamina Hospital will be equipped with laboratory test kits imported directly from the Swiss medical equipment company, Roche.
The kit from Roche is able to test 1,300 samples every day. The tool analyzes the patient’s saliva or mucus and can provide test results within four hours.
RSPJ will also create a swab checking application to detect the coronavirus in a drive-through set up. “They have been operating since yesterday, now they are again making an application for the drive-through swab test, so they will only make an appointment at a certain location, at that time, will come and be prepared by the RSPJ,” said Special Staff of BUMN Minister Arya Sinulingga.
Source: CNN Indonesia
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