Ministry says it can do 15,000 virus tests daily, but nobody’s showing up
Without enough people showing symptoms of COVID-19 to get tested, authorities plan to roll out randomized sampling in high-risk areas to get clearer picture of spread of virus
Israel now has the lab capacity to test up to 15,000 people for COVID-19 daily but demand has gone down as fewer suspected cases show up to have swabs taken, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.
Israel has been struggling, along with many other countries, to raise the number of tests it performs per day, and in recent days that number has dropped below 10,000 coinciding with a marked decrease in the number of confirmed cases reported since the start of the week.
Due to a downturn in coronavirus test referrals and “a decrease in the number of people with corona symptoms who want to be tested,” the ministry said that the number of people being tested has gone down, with only 9,031 tests performed on Saturday, of which 160 were found to be COVID-19 positive.
On Sunday, 8,393 tests were performed and 88 people were found to be positive. On Monday, 9,546 tests were performed and 110 people were found positive.
The ministry announced that it plans to launch random testing initiatives in areas with high infection rates to make up for the lack of sick patients seeking tests. It said a recently signed deal with the China-based Beijing Genomics Institute will soon allow Israel to conduct up to 20,000 daily tests.
A previous plan to perform randomized tests in Bnei Brak, the country’s hardest hit virus hotspot, was nixed earlier this month, reportedly after the Health Ministry and local officials raised objections.
Most carriers of COVID-19 are thought to have only mild symptoms or none at all, and experts fear that asymptomatic patients can transfer the contagion to others, making massive testing a critical element in getting a grip on the true spread of the virus.
In recent days, Israel’s infection rate has appeared to fall off significantly, with only a few dozen new cases being reported every 12 hours, and the government has announced steps to ease restrictions on businesses and travel. On Monday morning, the ministry reported just 68 new cases since Sunday morning, the lowest number since mid-March, when cases first began to ramp up.
On Tuesday, the ministry announced another 123 new cases since the day before.
In the two weeks prior, Israel had seen over 200 cases daily, with the ministry reporting daily testing numbers above 10,000.
Israel has long struggled to provide sufficient tests amid a global scramble for supplies.
In mid-April, the Defense Ministry announced that a plane carrying enough chemical reagents to conduct some 100,000 PCR coronavirus tests had landed in Israel.
Researchers at Hebrew University in Jerusalem claimed last week that Israel will soon have the technology to boost daily coronavirus testing to hundreds of thousands of people.
The Times of Israel Community.