In a flurry of activity since Friday, federal authorities have taken steps to further expand access to coronavirus tests in an effort to catch up with growing demand.

Early Saturday, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan emergency relief package that includes waivers for Medicare and private insurance to allow free COVID-19 testing for all. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has awarded $1.3 million to two private laboratories and granted emergency clearance to a third in an attempt to boost access to COVID-19 diagnostics.

Shortly before declaring a national emergency over the coronavirus, the White House on Friday granted Swedish drug giant Roche emergency use authorization for its high-speed SARS-CoV-2 Test. The move allows laboratories to immediately procure and run the test on the company’s high-volume diagnostic platform, “greatly increasing national testing capacity,” according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Roche has laboratories throughout the United States, and its systems can provide results in less than four hours, the company stated.

On the same day, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it had  awarded funds to help two commercial labs fast-track development of their one-hour diagnostics. DiaSorin Molecular, LLC of Cypress, California, will receive $679,000 to rapidly develop the Simplexa COVID-19 Direct Assay, and QIAGEN LLC of Germantown, Maryland, will receive approximately $598,000 to accelerate development of the QIAstat-Dx RPS2 test for COVID-19, HHS announced.

“Americans need access to rapid diagnostic testing,” said Rick A. Bright, Ph.D., director of the agency’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, in a statement. “The sooner clinicians, patients, and public health officials know whether someone is infected with the novel coronavirus, the sooner they can take action to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

Also on Friday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar designated an official coordinator of COVID-19 diagnostic testing efforts. Admiral Brett Giroir, M.D., was appointed Assistant Secretary for Health and head of the Public Health Service to serve in that capacity.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has updated coronavirus testing guidance for healthcare workers at Evaluating and Testing Persons for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).