Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. announced Wednesday that it will be the first company to carryout coronavirus test on its employees as part of a contact tracing pilot proposed by the IDF's Home Front Command.
Workers will be tested upon arriving at work and will receive the results within six to eight hours.
An employee found positive for the virus will immediately enter quarantine in order to prevent an outbreak among coworkers.
Testing will not be mandatory, but rather encouraged by the company, as has been the case with the annual flu vaccinations.
Over 8,000 employees work at Rafael and arrive every day at its various facilities around Israel including between 4,000-5,000 non-company workers.
The arms developer claimed it observed public health orders very seriously, but several outbreaks have occurred in the past months, forcing many workers to quarantine.
The testing is expected be carried out by Home Front Command soldiers and Health Ministry employees.
Another of the pilot program's objective is to dramatically increase the number of daily coronavirus tests, which has been dropping over the past week despite Israel's ability of conduct approximately 100,000 tests every day.
More companies are expected to join the pilot program, which has already been implemented in other countries.
In addition to workplaces, testing facilities are also expected to be put in malls and shopping centers, which will allow commerce there to remain open.
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Ariel Blitz, commander of the Dan district in the Home Front Command
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
"One of the things that bother us the most is that we cannot know the real scope of coronavirus morbidity if we do not conduct enough tests," Ariel Blitz, commander of the Dan district in the Home Front Command, said.
"Asymptomatic carriers are walking around and infecting people. We held many discussions with municipal authorities on how we can expedite faster contact tracing. This is the 'money-time' to increase testing, while morbidity is low and the second wave of infections is probably behind us," he said.
First published: 20:53, 11.11.20