JERUSALEM, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Israeli genealogy and genetic testing company MyHeritage will collaborate with the Chinese biotech giant BGI Genomics to set up a coronavirus testing lab in Israel, the Hebrew-language financial website Calcalist reported Friday.
The lab will be set up by April 9 and will conduct up to 20,000 tests for COVID-19, or novel coronavirus, a day, the report said.
The number of daily coronavirus tests in Israel will increase to 30,000 in two weeks, the Israeli Ministry of Health announced on Friday. The creation of the new lab is believed to be the main factor in the increase.
Founded in 2003, MyHeritage is based in the city of Or Yehuda in central Israel and employs about 500 people in Israel and abroad.
The company has a platform for discovering, preserving and sharing family history with advanced cross-check information technology.
BGI Genomics, founded in 1999, is the world's leading provider of genomic sequencing and proteomic services. Based in Shenzhen, China, it has 6,000 employees.
BGI is actively participating in the fields of cancer research, bio-sustainability and personalized medicine through a global network of collaborators.