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Trump administration officials doubled down on their promise to deliver 1 million tests for the coronavirus this week as states reported limited testing supplies and federal lawmakers expressed doubts about the government's timeline.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Thursday that a private manufacturer authorized to make the tests expects to ship the kits to U.S. laboratories by week's end. That amounts to the capacity to test roughly 400,000 people, given that it takes multiple test samples to a confirm a result.

Secaucus-based Quest Diagnostics, a provider of diagnostic information services, said Thursday it will launch a coronavirus test service.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The new test service aids the presumptive detection of nucleic acid in respiratory specimens of patients meeting CDC’s clinical criteria for COVID-19 testing. Quest will be in position to receive specimens for testing and begin to provide testing on March 9.

Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest commercial lab companies in the country, announced on Thursday it is launching a laboratory-developed test for the coronavirus next week, but it is unclear how many tests it will be able to run or how much it will cost. A spokesperson told POLITICO the test is in the process of being validated at Quest’s lab in San Juan Capistrano, Calif.

Quest Diagnostics plans to launch a nationwide testing service for the novel coronavirus next week—moving forward with its own assay after the FDA gave companies the green light to proceed with validated tests before receiving any agency review or authorizations.[CR-LF][CR-LF]The company described its lab-developed, molecular-based test as designed to detect viral RNA in respiratory specimens, and that it will be used for presumptive detection of the disease known as COVID-19.[CR-LF][CR-LF]Quest said it plans to begin receiving and testing specimens March 9, and will work to submit its test for agency review within the mandated 15-day timeline.

On Thursday, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. that had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) swelled to 100 -- and next week, that number is probably going to climb much further. That's because the country's second-largest provider of clinical testing services, Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX), has announced plans to begin helping the CDC unwind its backlog of coronavirus tests.[CR-LF][CR-LF]During January and February, U.S. healthcare officials isolated some people at risk of carrying SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Unfortunately, a shortage of fully approved testing kits means that it's still unclear how many infected individuals may have slipped through the cracks. It's fairly likely to be a large number. In the past two months, just a few thousand people with suspected cases of COVID-19 were actually tested in the U.S.