Ministry of Health to strengthen Covid-19 laboratory network

The existing laboratories are currently able to do 17,000 tests per day - the plan is to increase the limit to 25,000.

After they receive a doctor's request for a Covid-19 test, only 56 percent of patients will get their result by the evening of the first day. Another 16 percent have to wait until the following day.

63 percent of patients will get tested on the day the request is issued, but 8 percent will take more than a week to reach the sampling site, the Ministry of Health said.

The problem lies in the insufficient capacity of sampling points which is why the ministry wants to set up a backbone network of laboratories in all regions. Physicians should then send people to specific sampling sites with sufficient capacity.

According to the Minister of Health Adam Vojtěch (independent/ANO), when the season of respiratory diseases starts in autumn, high-risk individuals will be given priority on testing.