The Israeli military on Monday announced the establishment of the Home Front Command's "Ella" unit for epidemiological investigation, saying the unit will use proprietary technology seeking to streamline epidemiological investigations.
The system was developed as part of the IDF's efforts to assist the healthcare system improve its ability to detect potential exposure to the coronavirus in hopes of breaking the infection chain.
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Israel was widely praised for keeping the global pandemic at bay when it first landed in the Jewish state in mid-March, but the past few weeks have seen a second resurgence of the virus racing through the country, sparking concerns the outbreak is on the verge of spiraling out of control.
Israel has so far recorded 190,929 coronavirus cases, including 1,273 deaths. Some 169 patients are in serious condition, and 136,780 Israelis have so far recovered from the disease.
As of Monday evening, several major hospitals announced that their corona units had either exceeded capacity or were nearing full capacity, raising concerns patient care would be compromised.
The new system, dubbed "Cornerstone," seeks to extend the possibilities available for epidemiological investigations carried out by the Home Front Command's Alon task force, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said in a statement.
"The goal was to develop a simple and advanced system. The process of epidemiological investigations with the previous system was tedious and ineffective," unit commander Col. Chen Golani told Israel Hayom.
The IDF has also assigned an additional 600 soldiers to the unit, as well as dozens of reservists. In addition, hundreds of investigators will join the epidemiological mission across various municipalities over the next few weeks.
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Cornerstone, Golani said, "Was designed to be very user-friendly, and dozens of people can work on it at the same time. Everyone who has used the system so far is very satisfied. It can be opened to hundreds of users at the same time, and that provides a solution to the problem that currently exists."
i24NEWS. contributed to this report
