Covid-19 Pandemic which is still ongoing today calls the souls of several students and alumni of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences UI to implement their knowledge in the field of science by serving as volunteers for Laboratory Analysis at the Universitas Indonesia Hospital (UI Hospital)
They are Putra Mahanaim Tampubolon (Biology 2015 (Alumni)), and Fikri Anugrah Saputra (Biology 2016), who officially joined as non-medical volunteers at RSUI through Batch I registration, on March 22nd, 2020.
Followed by 3 colleagues namely Aulia Reski Widyaningrum (Biology 2013 (Alumni)), Ferdi Anda Sitepu (Biology 2016), and Aden Dhana Rizkita (S2 Chemistry (Alumni)) who entered through Batch 2 registration on 6th-12th April 2020.
In carrying out their duties as Laboratory Analysis, they are divided into 2 shifts. The first shift is in the morning starting at 8:00 until the afternoon at 15.00 WIB. Followed by the next shift at 15:00 until 22:00 WIB.
The task of the volunteers they have so far carried out is to test patient swab samples for the Covid-19 test to produce an accurate diagnosis.
Putra, one of the volunteer members said, in one day there were a maximum of 140 swab samples every day with the main sample coming from the Technical Implementation Unit of the Regional Health Laboratory Service Unit (UPTD LABKESDA) Depok.
“Until now, it can run a maximum of 140 samples per day, the main sample comes from the LABKESDA Depok reference.” added Putra.
He further explained, the method and process series are as follows, RNA extraction from nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, anal, faecal swabs, and SARS-CoV-2 detection using multiplex qRT-PCR.
All of these tasks must be carried out with due regard to biosafety and biosecurity aspects so that laboratory-acquired infection does not occur in volunteers and hospital staff.
To the FMIPA UI Public Relations team he also expressed his impressions in carrying out this call of heart.
For him, the devotion he and his colleagues made was a challenging excitement. Because with science in the field of science that they obtained during their lectures, they can apply it as a form of tangible contribution in helping the country.
They are also required to work hard, and are critical to understanding and interpreting any test results issued by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) engine in order to avoid misdiagnosis.
“We have to understand and be able to interpret every result that comes out of the PCR machine. Do not let it become false positive or false negative “he said.
Putra also reminded all parties that preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 is the strongest mitigation against COVID-19, so knowledge of who is truly positive and who isn’t is key.
“We hope that an accurate diagnosis made at the RSUI can break the growth of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.” The effect is as a cover.
