Health official: 10,000 coronavirus samples went ‘missing’

A senior health official on Monday said 10,000 coronavirus tests conducted on patients suspected of carrying the disease have gone “missing.”

The official, who spoke to Channel 12 on condition of anonymity, said the tests had either disappeared entirely or had taken over a week to arrive at testing labs, making their results outdated.

The television report attributed the oversight to the multi-layered medical bureaucracy in Israel, which sees the test samples gathered by the Magen David Adom emergency service and transferred to Health Ministry-run labs. The labs inform the Health Ministry of the results, which notifies the country’s HMOs, which are then responsible for reporting the results to clients.

According to the ministry on Tuesday, 9,459 tests were conducted between Sunday night and Monday night, marking a rise over previous weeks but still falling far short of the stated goal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of 30,000 daily tests, amid shortages of key reagents.

Last week, the Health Ministry said Israel signed a NIS 90 million ($25 million) deal with Chinese firm BGI to buy equipment that will allow Israel to conduct at least 10,000 coronavirus tests a day. It said the new equipment will be installed in six labs over the next few weeks, and will carry out testing alongside Israel’s current testing facilities.

The new tests are PCR tests — polymerase chain reaction tests — which directly detect viral nucleic acids. Some tests detect the body’s antibodies to the virus.

BGI’s tests have been used widely in China, and are being distributed to over 50 other countries and regions, the firm said. Results from the tests are available three hours after they are administered.

But according to a Channel 12 report Sunday, Israel’s largest HMO has refused to work with the firm over concerns BGI and the Chinese government could gain access to sensitive information on its 4.9 million customers, including on their DNA.