Still no 4-hour COVID-19 test at Ben-Gurion Airport
The company lists the option of receiving the tests on its website, which has confused several travelers.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANThe new “Check2Fly” coronavirus testing lab at Ben-Gurion Airport's Terminal 3, November 9, 2020(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The “Check2Fly” coronavirus testing lab at Ben-Gurion Airport was set up in Terminal 3 and inaugurated in a formal ceremony in mid-November. Since then, the company’s website touts two tests: A four-hour, NIS 134.64 screening or a 14-hour, NIS 44.88 test. However, The Jerusalem Post has learned that the four-hour test is still not available.Check2Fly is a joint project of Omega, a coronavirus testing company, and Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus. The four-hour test centers on a new screening technology that has not yet received approval by the Health Ministry.The ministry requested that the company run certain trials, which it did and submitted the data to the authorities. The data was reviewed and accepted with requests for follow-up experiments, which the company conducted.Check2Fly submitted the data to the Health Ministry two-and-a-half weeks ago but is still waiting for a response.In the meantime, the company lists the option of receiving the tests on its website, which has confused several travelers.This week, Yair Keinon decided he wanted to take a last-minute trip to Bulgaria with a friend. He was in isolation until shortly before his flight, but he found on the Check2Fly website the option for the rapid test. Although he put his flight number into the system to make an appointment for a four-hour test and none came up, he figured he would try his chances at the airport.He arrived 10 hours in advance and tried again to get a test, but the company told him that they were only offering such tests for larger, preapproved groups.The company lists the option on the website because it is something that they can provide, in the hopes that when the Health Ministry approves the rapid test, they can quickly enable the appointment finder for users.Meanwhile, some travelers are faced with expensive options when looking to get an accepted record of a negative coronavirus test before traveling abroad. Not all the local health funds, which offer free testing, can provide a certificate of negative results in English.As such, some travelers will need to go to an area hospital that can provide such documentation and pay for a private test, which can cost several hundred shekels. The other option is to make an appointment for a 14-hour test at the airport and pay NIS 44.88.
All returnees to Israel are required to take a test on arrival and then again while in isolation if they want to reduce their isolation period from 14 to 10 days. To encourage screening, tests at the airport for people who come back into Israel are now free.
