Following critisicm that not enough testing has been done, the Ministry of Health released a statement regarding the rate of COVID-19 testing conducted until this point.
According to the statement, the numbers released are actually the number of evaluated lab tests.
Thousands of samples have been taken by Magen David Adom (MDA) on a daily basis at testing facilities and parking lot drive-ins, placing Israel among the worldwide leaders in coronavirus testing.
This pace has declined in recent days due to a shortage of X-rays, a switch to locally-produced technology and a decline in the public's desire to be tested during the Passover holiday. To this end, the laboratories have undergone internal updating processes designed to enable continued work using locally-produced X-ray machines.
This process requires each lab to undertake adjustments lasting up to an entire day, as a result of which there will be a decrease in lab activity that will be resolved soon.
Newly-purchased equipment - including six additional BGI-AID machines that will increase the testing rate to 20,000 laboratory tests per day - were also added after adjustments were made to the new equipment. After these were covered under national health funding, the Ministry is now continuing on to the testing target established by the Prime Minister.
Along with the training of professional staff in other university laboratories, including the Weizmann Institute, with which an agreement has already been signed, an agreement will also be signed with the testing lab at Tel Aviv University tomorrow, the statement added.