A man in Indonesia who requested a test kit for the Chinese coronavirus ended up receiving a positive pregnancy test result on Saturday, according to local media.
Coconuts reported that the 27-year-old man, identified only by his initials AB, recently returned from a trip to a highly infected area and underwent a rapid coronavirus test while being quarantined at a facility in Rote Ndao.
On Saturday, the man received his results, which were for a pregnancy test instead of the coronavirus. To his surprise, he received a “reactive” result, presumably meaning he is pregnant.
“Today [June 13] we admit our error and will correct it by publishing the correct lab results,” said Widyanto Adhy, the spokesman of the coronavirus task force in NTT’s Rote Ndao Regency. “I don’t think it is important to report how [the error occurred], but that we have taken steps to make sure that the same mistake won’t be repeated.”
The lab results were issued by Ba’a General Hospital, which claimed that the mistake had been a typo. In reality, his reactive result was that for the rapid coronavirus test, meaning he should undergo a swab test. However, Adhy ordered the man and his family to wait for a re-examination of his original sample so they can reconfirm the results.
“Isn’t it weird, they took the sample for COVID-19, but the result that came out is for pregnancy. And the patient whose samples were taken was a man,” said Ferdinan Boik, identified as AB’s brother.
Pregnancy tests typically require a woman to urinate on a stick that gives a positive or negative result, the positive result triggered by elevated hormone levels. The coronavirus test is a swab test, where samples of saliva are examined in a lab to determine whether the person has the relevant antibodies.
“We ask that the [hospital] staff be serious about this disease, because it has claimed the lives of many people,” added Naomi Toulasik, who is also identified as a family member.
Having initially attempted to play down the significance of the pandemic, Indonesia has now recorded nearly 40,000 cases of the coronavirus and 2,200 deaths. Yet given its vast population of around 270 million, such figures are relatively low compared to smaller countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and Peru, all of whom have recorded between 200,000 and 300,000 cases.
Indonesia has also attracted headlines for its bizarre approaches to handling the pandemic. The strangest of these was in April when officials in Central Java province punished violators of the country’s nationwide lockdown by forcing them to stay in a haunted house in isolation for up to two weeks.
Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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