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The administration says it will spend $650 million to expand testing for K-8 schools and settings where people congregate such as homeless shelters, via new "hubs" created by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense. Regional coordinating centers will work to increase testing capacity, partnering with labs and universities to collect specimens, perform tests and report results to public health agencies. The plan could mean an additional 25 million tests per month, and it's intended to aid President Biden's effort to open schools for in-person learning. (Wamsley, 2/17)

The White House announced Wednesday a multipronged effort to bolster the United States’ ability to test for Covid-19 in schools and homeless shelters, increase domestic manufacturing of testing supplies such as pipette tips, and boost genomic sequencing efforts needed to understand the spread of virus variants. Biden testing coordinator Carole Johnson described the $1.6 billion for testing as a “pilot” that will serve as a bridge until Congress passes its massive $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill. (Lim, 2/17)

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is investing roughly $200 million in an effort to triple the country's genomic sequencing, the process crucial to tracking the spread of new, more contagious variants of the virus. The move is one of three actions officials announced Wednesday aimed at boosting testing. (Sullivan, 2/17)

By month’s end, the United States will pay off the arrears it owes to the World Health Organization as well as its current year obligations, the State Department announced Wednesday. In remarks to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States would provide more than $200 million “in assessed and current obligations to the WHO” as a “key step” toward complying with U.S. financial obligations as a member country. (Oswald, 2/17)

Also —

Nearly a year after scientists showed that the coronavirus can be inhaled in tiny droplets called aerosols that linger indoors in stagnant air, more than a dozen experts are calling on the Biden administration to take immediate action to limit airborne transmission of the virus in high-risk settings like meatpacking plants and prisons. The 13 experts — including several who advised President Biden during the transition — urged the administration to mandate a combination of masks and environmental measures, like better ventilation, to blunt the risks in various workplaces. (Mandavilli, 2/17)