, Israeli MyHeritage and Chinese BGI will set up a corona testing lab that will allow 10,000 tests a day

In a fast-paced and timely manner, Israeli MyHeritage and Chinese genetics giant BGI will set up a corona testing lab in Israel that will allow 10,000 corona tests a day. Construction of the lab will be completed by April 9 and will allow the state to conduct extensive corona testing, amounting to 10,000 tests a day. Subsequently, in a short time, the laboratory tests can be expanded to 20,000 a day. The same lab was set up in just five days by BGI in Wuhan City where the Corona virus and another lab in Shenzhen burst.
According to MyHeritage CEO and co-founder Gilad Yefet, "BGI will ship to Israel in the next few days an air train of equipment containing dozens of advanced qPCR corona testing machines - the type of equipment used to detect RNA viruses where minimal amounts of the virus can be measured. The equipment includes robots for producing RNA and large quantities of related equipment. "
In order for the lab to keep up with the tight schedule and start operating by April 9, MyHeritage is preparing to recruit a 110-employee lab. According to Yefet, "Alongside the air train, about 25 experts from China will come to Israel to train us with the equipment." The Chinese expert team will be exempted from entering the isolation, as they will come with medical certificates indicating that they are negative for the virus.
The collaboration between MyHeritage, one of the world's leading pedigree and DNA testing companies, and the Chinese company, is the result of business contacts between the parties in the past year and at the end of February, while Europe and Israel barely became aware of the virus, MyHeriage representatives contacted the Chinese company to investigate cooperation on the corona. BGI is considered a giant of genetics in China, employs around 6000 people and manufactures genetic paving and analysis machines.

According to Gilad Yefet, the money will be brought to the lab by MyHeritage and Chinese BGI will donate the equipment and manpower. "Our goal is not to become rich, but to benefit humanity. This is the beautiful time of the Israeli high-tech industry." Last week, MyHeritage announced it had donated 66,000 of its emergency supplies to the Ministry of Health for the purpose of conducting corona tests.