What’s the story with coronavirus testing?
Testing for coronavirus is a data gathering tool and not a means to treat the disease, Magen David Adom (MDA) medical director Refael Strugo stressed on Wednesday, the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the public that he planned to dramatically increase coronavirus screenings.
For most of the last month, Israel has tested around 750 people per day. In recent days, that number has increased to a little more than 1,000 and even 2,000, according to Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar
Siman Tov.
During a briefing on Tuesday, Netanyahu committed to increasing the number of tests to between 3,000 and 5,000 per day, which he claimed would be the highest number of tests taken per day / per capita by any country.
South Korea tests around 15,000 people per day and has a population around five times larger than Israel’s.
The prime minister’s comments came only minutes after Defense Minister Naftali Bennett told the public in an interview on Channel 13 that his aim was to test 30,000 people per day, and minutes before the Health Ministry’s head of public health Sigal Sadetsky explained that whereas screening is important data gathering, isolation is what will control the spread of the coronavirus.
“Sadetsky said that the way you stop the spread of the disease is isolation,” Strugo told The Jerusalem Post. “The number of tests you do can give you an idea of how much the disease has spread throughout the community and can tell you if we are reaching the peak, reaching the plateau, starting to get to the point of crisis.”
He said it will also help identify hot spots of the disease.
“If we want to stop the spread, you have to isolate” people – social distancing, he continued.
How many tests should the country be taking per day?
Strugo said that while Bennett’s 30,000 would be extreme and likely unrealistic, “there is not one magic number.”
He suggested that we are edging toward 5,000 to 10,000 tests and he believes “this would be a good number.” And he said that with the addition of MDA’s six drive-through testing complexes and the purchase by the Health Ministry of half a million test kits, he expects Israel to test around 12,000 people per day very soon.
Bar Siman Tov told Channel 12 on Wednesday that Israel was still lacking tests but was making an effort to secure what was needed to achieve the country’s testing goals.
Up until now, Israel has conducted around 11,000 tests between those taken