Over 7 Million Rapid COVID-19 Tests for Students Arrive in Israel
More than 7 million coronavirus antigen testing kits arrived in Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday. The kits will be used to implement a government plan to keep students out of quarantine and in school, while also allowing parents to go to work.
Under the Green Classrooms Plan, which will be launched in cities and communities with low coronavirus morbidity figures, students who are exposed to the coronavirus can return to the classroom after they get a negative result on a PCR test, as long as they continue to take a rapid antigen test every day for a week. At the end of the week, they will be required to take another PCR test. The plan does not apply to children in kindergarten or under, however. In those settings, the entire class must enter quarantine if a child is found to have the coronavirus.
The launching of the plan was held up earlier this week due to a shortage of rapid antigen tests.
Over 7 million rapid COVID-19 antigen tests earmarked for schoolchildren arrived in Israel on September 12-13, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)
“The kits will be used to test pupils in the education system in order to implement the green classrooms plan and enable the continuation of routine life for parents, pupils and the Israeli economy,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We are doing everything to keep the economy open, the education system functioning, and to maintain routine life. With the millions of tests that we are bringing to the country – it is possible. With correct, close and flexible management, we will defeat the Delta strain,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in the statement.
