COVID testing sites overwhelmed, with some people said to wait 3 hours

Congestion and extremely long waits are being reported at coronavirus testing centers after they were also seen over the Rosh Hashanah holiday, drawing criticism of the government.

“It is unreasonable that a year and a half into [the pandemic], operational difficulties are still being discovered at the testing stations around the country,” an unnamed health official tells the Ynet news site. “Unreasonable queues are causing the public to abandon and give up on the vital tests to deal with the spread of the coronavirus.”

Some people have been reportedly waiting some three hours to be tested over the holiday and today.

Other testing centers, such as in East Jerusalem, have much less traffic, the Walla news site reports.

The long waits on Rosh Hashanah have been blamed on fewer testing centers and the fact that many students are going to get tested ahead of their return to school or after they were exposed to a confirmed case.