Biden Administration Will Provide $1.6B to Improve COVID-19 Testing and Sequencing

The White House COVID-19 Response Team announced on Feb. 17, 2021 that the Biden administration will provide $1.6 billion to expand and improve COVID-19 testing and genomic sequencing.

The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Defense will spend $650 million to expand testing opportunities for schools kindergarten through eighth grade and underserved settings like homeless shelters.

The agency will also establish regional coordinating centers to identify laboratory testing capacity and match it to specific areas of need. The coordinating centers will partner with labs, including academic and commercial labs, to collect specimens, perform tests, and report results. Carole Johnson, the response team’s supply coordinator, noted during a media briefing that testing can be difficult to implement in non-medical settings, so the coordinating centers will help bridge that gap. 

Source: https://www.genomeweb.com/policy-legislation/biden-administration-will-provide-16b-improve-covid-19-testing-and-sequencing