Some 30 additional coronavirus testing complexes will be added to the existing complexes in the coming week to help offset yet another expected flood of requested to be screened for the virus before and after Yom Kippur, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Salman Zarka told the Knesset on Sunday.
Already, according to remarks made by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the morning cabinet meeting, the number of testing complexes had already been increased from 115 to 160.
In recent days, some testing complexes have had long waits - even as much as three and four hours - which Zarka said during the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee was partly due to the start of the school year and partly due to the holidays. He said that some people turned to PCR tests instead of rapid antigen tests, which would have sufficed.
For Yom Kippur, he said that the antigen tests will be valid until the end of the fast, up to 36 hours, so that anywhere that a Green Pass is required - such as synagogues - that the test will be good.
“We did not expect people to do another antigen test to go to break the fast,” the commissioner said.
Zarka explained that it is less expensive for people to do a PCR test and this is part of the reason that people are opting for PCR tests over antigen, but that would need to be a PR campaign explaining that the antigen tests should be taken for the Green pass program.
“There is also confusion about the requirement of PCR tests for children who want to visit hotels,” the commissioner said, noting that by Sunday the ministry will decide if an antigen test can suffice for a visit to a hotel instead of a PCR test.
“Currently there is a plan to deploy the test complexes until Sukkot in terms of complexes and operating hours,” he continued, meaning that the additional 30 complexes and additional later hours would be implemented through the holiday, which ends on Tuesday, September 28 in Israel this year.
“There was an unusual load … but we can provide an answer,” he added, “We are increasing the number of staff, providing targeted information on antigen testing and, in the coming days, we are also preparing for more availability from the Home Front Command the health funds.”
The crowding of testing centers was something that the State Comptroller addressed in its report on coronavirus last month, recommending that the Health Ministry and the Home Front Command analyze the waiting times at the testing complexes to determine the reasons for long waits and draw lessons from it, something that appears has not yet been done.
Zarka, however, stressed that the complexes were not packed in all locations and that there were some with moderate lines and waits.
At the morning cabinet meeting, Minister of Social Equality Meirav Cohen said that she had also spent the holiday in long lines with her children.
“We need to provide an answer for this. These are important and prove themselves, but at the operational level, they need to be resolved,” Cohen said.