The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced actions to improve the availability of COVID-19 testing, including for schools and underserved populations; to increase domestic manufacturing of tests and testing supplies; and to better prepare the nation for the threat of variants by rapidly increasing virus genome sequencing. “As part of the President’s national strategy to combat COVID-19, we will deploy every available resource to ensure that more individuals and families have access to testing options during this unprecedented time and that our nation is prepared to contain and prevent the spread of possible variants," said HHS Acting Secretary Norris Cochran. (HHS news release, 2/17/21)
