VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Padjajaran University (Unpad) and the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) in West Java, are jointly developing a new rapid COVID-19 test using antigens, as an alternative to detect the virus, amid a shortage of the reagents necessary to conduct polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. West Java governor Ridwan Kamil said as quoted by The Jakarta Post, that he new equipment was developed with a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor, which could detect the virus’ RNA quickly and accurately on the spot. Ridwan said in a statement, after a visit to the Unpad Research Center for Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics on Thursday, that the SPR testing only requires a laptop and a little box containing the samples to detect the virus. PCR tests, currently considered the most precise method to detect the virus in patients, are time-consuming. They require lengthy laboratory test//JP