An El Al plane carrying reagents for tens of thousands of coronavirus tests and 30,000 protective suits for medical staff took off for Israel from South Korea on Wednesday morning.
The materials were purchased by the Defense Ministry on behalf of the Health Ministry. Because of the challenges to travel in the era of coronavirus and the urgency with which the reagents were needed, the Defense Ministry worked together with the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Embassy in Seoul to arrange a landing permit in less than 24 hours. The plane should arrive at Ben-Gurion Airport by Wednesday at noon, ahead of the Passover holiday. “I thank the Defense Ministry and El Al, who we sent to the end of the world in order to bring lifesaving equipment here,” said Defense Minister Naftali Bennett. “We continue to act in full force, and in all possible ways, both with local production and in the international arena,” said Defense Minister Naftali Bennett. Similarly, Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that his ministry is “mobilized to fight corona” and helped allow for the delivery of this equipment so the country can “effectively deal with the epidemic. ” The Health Ministry said that it was low on reagents, he chemical compound used to extract the virus’s DNA from the samples and thus identify if it exists in the body, last Friday. Since then, it has reduced the number of tests it takes per day. Although on Monday, the Health Ministry reported that it tested 7,250 people, according to the National Security Council, only 1,600 people were screened on Tuesday. Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov said that he plans to expand screenings specifically in nursing homes so that when one resident or staff member falls ill with coronavirus all the residents and staff will be tested. In addition, the Health and Defense ministries Tuesday night signed an agreement with BGI, a Chinese genome sequencing company, to provide equipment and materials that will allow for around 10,000 coronavirus tests a day, according to a release by the Health Ministry. The equipment will be placed in six Health Fund labs within the next two to three weeks. The total cost of the procurement was NIS 90 million. “We are glad for the cooperation with the Health Ministry and the trust they’ve placed in us to carry out this important national mission,” said Snir Zano, the CEO of AID GENOMICS, BGI’s partner in Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bennett have said that their goal is to test as many as 30,000 people per day so that the country can better understand how the novel virus has spread across the country.
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