Earlier this year, the company I work for started doing official rapid antigen Covid testing and testing now takes up a surprisingly-large part of my day (seriously--I have done over 650 tests!). Our tests give people either an official travel document or, for people not traveling, the results get entered in the Ministry of Health, thus giving someone a 24 hour "Green Pass" (which is being phased out at the moment, but formerly was required for entrance to a movie theater, hotel, restaurant, etc) ) OR an official Covid diagnosis. The results make their way from my company to the Ministry of Health and then over to the person's kupah (HMO) where they become a "forever" part of their health record.
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| this will hold me for a few days! |
It's interesting to note the American mindset, as people visiting here just do not understand how un-private your health info is. If you are officially Covid positive and show up to the airport (which, by the way you can't enter without proof of your flight and a negative Covid test) and try to fly--EVEN with proof of a negative Covid test--during the time you are supposed to be in in quarantine: THEY KNOW. And you will (supposedly, at least. Thankfully no one I know has tried to pull this off) be taken from the airport and put in a Covid hotel. So often people say to me, "well, in the US they'd never know". Yup. And here they do. So don't try any funny business!
And speaking of un-private: I was appalled when the list of my vaccinations from my kupah contained two other pages with a list of prescription medication I've taken this past year AND the results of my last blood work! I printed the vaccination list and decided that Delta would just have to somehow deal without knowing my latest blood count (where's that eye-roll emoji?!).
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| waiting on results |
Back to Covid testing: We do a throat (tonsil) swab and a swab of each nostril (also a difference w the US, I hear, as you guys are evidently not throat-swabbing for antigen tests). I am well-protected with gloves, a surgical gown, mask and face shield, which is good given the number of people who gag or cough on me after the throat swab (I hear you, folks--not my favorite thing either).
People flying into the US have to do an antigen test the calendar day before their flight. Note that it's not 24 hours before, just one calendar day, which is much more flexible and user-friendly. This means that anyone flying Saturday night before midnight can do their test anytime Friday. For Shabbat-observant people, this is a huge help. Too bad more people don't know about it, as I generally have a small number of tests on Fridays and a LARGE number of people setting up appointments for Saturday night (those flying after midnight have no choice).
The company uses a scheduling site that books appointments 5 minutes apart, which generally is great as long as people keep to their appointment times. My first test of the day is 7:55 a.m.most days and the other day I was stunned to hear, while I was davening (praying) at 7:35 that there were voices outside. And those voices clearly did not belong to my neighbors getting in their cars and driving off.....EEK. Luckily our friend Ephraim, who had stayed over for Shabbat, was leaving early Sunday morning and told them I'd be out in a bit. Let's just say it wasn't the best praying I had ever done
Unusual answers to the website questions:
"City of residence in Israel (required by the Ministry of Health to keep track of which cities are orange/red)": "New York"
"City of residence in Israel": "US"
"Your passport number": "No" (I still have no idea what this person meant. But they did, indeed, show up with a passport)
And, of course, many of the folks visiting from the US put their birth date in US form, mixing up month/day with day/month (even though the website asks for it in Israeli order and gives an example).
If I'm home/awake, I'm happy to do a test. This has led to some madcap moments such as when my good friend found out she was Covid + on a home test and it was 11:30 at night. "QUICK!!!! Come down right now and I'll get your results in the Ministry of Health so today counts as Day 1". This has happened a number of times around 9 or 10 pm, but that was the only time doing the test and getting the results was a nail-biter countdown to midnight (the results take 15 minutes and it takes another minute or two for me to input into the Ministry of Health). The current rule in Israel is that you have 5 days of bidud after a positive result. the day you get a positive result is Day 1. If you get a negative result (can be on a home test or an official antigen test) on Day 4 and then again on Day 5, you are free from quarantine on midnight at the end of Day 5. So getting that first day in the system is a big help for people.
The Ministry of Education requests that parents give their child a home test before school on Sundays and again on Wednesdays and has supplied parents with free tests and a website to submit their results. Some schools are more strict than others about this testing and require parents to submit their results to the school as well and there is at least one local school which will send a child home if the results were not submitted to the school. However, submitting a positive result to the Ministry of Education/your child's school does not get your child in the Ministry of Health system. Without being in the MOH system, your child does not officially have Covid. Being officially diagnosed means that your child is exempt from needing a booster shot (at least for a while), have an updated Green Pass and does not need a test to fly. The upshot of this is that I have an uptick of tests on the days that people test their children and find out--SURPRISE--that their child has Covid.
Worst part of the job: telling people they are positive, especially those who are asymptomatic and thought they were just going through the formality of testing before their flight :(
