“In the face of this unprecedented health threat, there are times when we have all felt the need to move fast in an effort to save lives. … This collaboration will be crucial to helping us overcome the current challenge and putting in place a strong foundation for the future,” Shendure said in a statement.

Previously, the US had performed testing through health departments and commercial laboratory giants such as Quest Diagnostics and Laboratory Corp of America.

The NYT reported that infectious disease experts in the Seattle Flu Study had tried to repurpose their tests from monitoring seasonal flu to the coronavirus after the first infection was confirmed in Seattle in late January, but their efforts were rebuffed by state and federal officials.

Given that it takes weeks to go through all the bureaucracies to be certified as a clinical laboratory, scientists started to test and report the result since late February without the authorities’ approval, arguing there should be some flexibility amid a public health crisis, according to The Times. State regulators told experts to stop testing altogether on Monday.

Reports of new US virus cases expected to rise amid testing capacity boost

The investigation caused a storm on social media, with some people linking the efforts to silence the Seattle scientists to the Chinese authorities’ reprimanding of doctors who tried to warn colleagues of the illness in the early stage.

The Washington State Department of Health did not respond to a request for comment.

Although the research laboratory in Seattle has found a way to continue testing, it does not diagnose individuals with coronavirus, and it has paused sample collection and is currently unable to process new requests. It continues to test the samples in stock as a way to increase testing capacity and “provide public health officials with as much information as possible”.

Many people are still unable to be tested despite the Centres for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidance that anyone can do so with no restrictions, subject to a doctor’s orders.

Last week, US President Donald Trump said that anyone who wanted a test could get one, but that assertion was contradicted by Republican Senator James Lankford on Thursday.

“People should not say, ‘If you want a test, you can get a test’ right now,” Lankford said. “That’s coming. That’s not here right now. … We’ve got a long way to go to be able to get rapid, efficient testing.”

On Wednesday, the White House coronavirus task force recommended 30-day mitigation strategies for the hardest-hit areas in Washington state and California because of widespread community transmission.

They include regular health checks at schools, social distancing measures in senior living facilities, companies allowing employees to work from home and expanding sick leave, and the cancellation of community gatherings.

The US has accelerated the diagnosis process, leading to a surge in confirmed cases in the past week. The number of patients surpassed 1,300 early on Thursday, with most of the cases in Washington, California and New York. At least 35 people have died.

Testifying about preparedness and response before a US House oversight committee on Thursday morning, CDC Director Robert Redfield said there were more than 4 million tests in the marketplace but that a major challenge remains in administering them.

“You need people and laboratory equipment to do the test, you need some of the reagents that actually now are in short supply to prepare the test, you need the swabs to take the test, so we're working very hard with the FDA to ensure the supply of all these different pieces,” he said.