Magen David Adom announced on Thursday that since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in Israel (which recorded its first case in late February), MDA teams have tested 2,458,867 people for the virus.
The samples were taken at a variety of sites nationwide, including private homes, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions and MDA "Drive and Test" facilities.
For comparison, last week (November 1-5), MDA EMTs and paramedics sampled 114,885 people to be tested for COVID-19.
In addition, MDA's 101 Emergency Call Center showed a significant increase in citizen inquiries, which reached 11,285 calls a day this week, an increase of about 190% compared to a routine day.
According to MDA data, since the coronavirus outbreak, 354,485 samples were taken in people's homes, while 873,635 were taken at MDA's "Drive and Test" facilities.
Of the "Drive and Test" facilities, the cities that sampled the largest number of people were Jerusalem (144,102) and Tel Aviv (94,483).
MDA has also sampled 4,960 travelers who returned to Israel from abroad at a special stand in Ben Gurion Airport.
In addition to performing tests, MDA has also collected plasma and blood donations from recovered COVID-19 patients to help treat severely ill patients.