WASHINGTON — The Trump administration moved on Friday to dramatically speed up coronavirus testing, introducing an emergency hotline for private laboratories and new partnerships with companies developing tests that can detect the virus within an hour.
The unit within the Department of Health and Human Services that does biomedical research will award over a million dollars to two companies, DiaSorin Molecular and Qiagen, to speed up the development of the tests, H.H.S. announced on Friday morning.
The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that a 24-hour emergency hotline would be created to help private-sector and academic labs authorize new tests and process the ones deployed.
Health and Human Services also made drastic changes to the team overseeing the distribution of tests to public and private labs, installing Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for the agency, to oversee the efforts.
Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, now must report to Adm. Giroir, said Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary.
The move was another indication of tension among top health officials as the Trump administration has struggled to catch up to the demand nationally at public health labs.