We are approaching a year of the virus, 9-10 months of lockdowns and tight regulations, and still it is a fight and a hassle to get a corona test.
With two kids in quarantine because of infections in their schools, I need to get them tested. Pikud HaOref, the Home Front Command, operates walk in or drive thru Corona testing sites around the country. You can go to these without a referral from your doctor and without an appointment. You just have to be willing, and have the time, to stand in line for up to a couple of hours, depending on how backed up they get. Besides for that the Kupot Cholim all have their own testing sites. For these you need a referral and an appointment. The referral is easy to get - you just call the central kupa number and request it, after waiting on hold for a nice amount of time. The appointment is more difficult. There are not that many appointments available, I guess because a lot of people are being tested, so you can often only get an appointment for a couple days down the line.
Normally that wouldnt be a big deal. If I needed an appointment and couldnt do it quickly through the kupa, I would go to a Pikud Haoref walk in site. The problem is that they don't have them all the time. Each city is different, but in Bet Shemesh this week, for example, they only have walk in locations twice - on this past Sunday and on the coming Thursday. That isnt very helpful for someone who suddenly needs a test on Monday or Tuesday and cant go to a walk in until Thursday and can't get a kupa appointment until Wednesday night.
That is all anecdotal. And it will all work out. The point is that in the situation we, as a country, are in right now, after so much time, it should really be easier to arrange a quick and timely Corona test.
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Interesting - in Modiin Illit (at least in Meuchedet) there is no problem getting a test right away.
ReplyDeleteIt is also getting more difficult to get a test in Modiin, and much longer to get results. 2 weeks ago my daughter wanted to go to Eilat - we drove her to the testing center in Modiin and she was done in about 15 minutes and we had the results 3 hours later.
ReplyDeleteShe is now in Bidud, the testing center wouldn't see her without an appointment (which was only available the following evening) and she has still not received results.
Problem is that with the massive increase in new cases in the past 3 weeks, there is a corresponding increase in the number of people in bidud and demand for tests. 3 weeks ago we were doing less than 50,000 tests a day, now we are doing over 90,000, which is more than the system can cope with.
interesting. our test results have gotten quicker, but never that fast. it is around about 12 hours now. That's probably a difference between kupot though, nothing to do with local procedures.
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