Laboratories and HMOs are slowing down the rate of virus detection due to a lack of DNA production materials, which is essential for editing. • "No full-capacity machines are running"
The Prime Minister and the Director General of the Ministry of Health have promised in recent weeks that the number of tests for Corona will increase to ten thousand already these days and will reach 15,000 next week, but in laboratories and hospitals warn that they are forced to slow the rate of testing.
This is how the "check and run" method works // Photo: Shmuel Buchris
The announcement was due to a lack of reagent - a chemical that aids DNA production in tests, and laboratories even warn that within two days, the test rate will significantly slow down if no additional material is available. It should be noted that during the night an additional amount of reagents is expected to be in flight.
"The inventory will last for three days"
The Prime Minister and the Director General of the Ministry of Health have promised in recent weeks that the number of tests for Corona will increase to ten thousand already these days and will reach 15,000 next week, but in laboratories and hospitals warn that they are forced to slow the rate of testing.
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The announcement was due to a lack of reagent - a chemical that aids DNA production in tests, and laboratories even warn that within two days, the test rate will significantly slow down if no additional material is available. It should be noted that during the night an additional amount of reagents is expected to be in flight.
On Monday, most of the responsibility for conducting laboratory tests will be transferred to the HMO. Each of the funds will open dozens of dedicated clinics where corona tests will be performed, after receiving a referral from a physician and laboratory tests will be done at the health fund laboratories.
"The reagent inventory will last for another three days," Sigal Regev Rosenberg warned a unified CEO at the Knesset Corona Committee. National Director Nissim Alon added in the same discussion: "We do not operate a machine capable of performing 1,500 tests a day at full output due to a lack of reagents. We did 500 tests and today 300. The material will suffice for a few more days. "
"What doesn't exist in an emergency malfunction routine"
Elon also said: "From the beginning, I said that what works best in a routine will work very well in emergencies. Whatever exists in the routine and is in an emergency location will work but with many glitches, as is unfortunately the case these days, and that the division of responsibility today is among the MDA that takes the samples And moves them to 27 different labs that don't talk to each other, and these produce results that are sent to the Ministry of Health that transfers them to the health funds. I have requested and pressed that the entire process of testing for Corona be carried out with full responsibility of the end-to-end HMOs, and I am pleased and congratulate the Ministry of Health on the planned change. "
Esther Edmon, chairman of the Laboratory of Labor Workers warned, "Because of the lack of reagents, we lowered our gear in the laboratories. For 10 days everyone knows that a shortage is expected and now the Ministry of Health says materials are expected to arrive on flight from abroad. We in the laboratories have reached the point of keeping the reagents like diamonds. It is a priority to give the tests to the people who are hospitalized. "I try to be restrained, but all the things about labs are cut off from the field. I worry about what will be two or three days later. People are already sampling and they are not getting answers and calling my direct phone and my family and getting anxious."
Speaking to the Corona Commission, Morris Dorfman, the VP of regulation at the health ministry, said about 10,000 tests had been done on Wednesday, but the Ministry of Health figures show that only 8088 were done.