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The Trump administration said Wednesday it will no longer directly run virus testing sites, which it had been doing in hard-hit parts of the country, opting instead to "transition" control of the last of its 13 sites to the states, including seven in Texas. Administration officials defended the move as necessary to scale up testing at local pharmacies and other retail sites where Americans routinely visit, and they insisted that sites exclusively run by federal bureaucrats were never meant to be permanent. (Flaherty and Siegel, 6/24)

The testing sites are located in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey and Texas. They are the last of 41 federally operated testing sites. Federal officials say the sites have been closing or transferring to state or local control because it's more efficient to run testing that way. In other instances they argue there are readily available testing sites nearby. (Romo, 6/24)

The sites, which HHS says are spread across five states, are the remnants of a larger federal testing program established early in the pandemic. Seven sites are in Texas, which is experiencing record numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. (Lim, 6/24)

The sites, called Community-Based Testing Sites, had been supported by Federal Emergency Management Agency and HHS since mid-March. The agencies formulated an agreement in May to sunset funding for the sites at the end of June. ... Dr. Brett Giroir, HHS' assistant secretary for health and the official heading up the Trump administration's COVID-19 diagnostic testing effort, said on a call with reporters Wednesday that the agencies have worked with governors to ensure the sites can transition smoothly. (Bannow, 6/24)

The Trump administration is not abandoning federally funded coronavirus testing sites, the administration's COVID-19 testing czar said Wednesday. Adm. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that even though the government will stop directly funding 13 community-based coronavirus testing sites, the amount of testing will not decrease and the sites should not lose resources. (Weixel, 6/24)

With Covid-19 cases rising in Dallas County, Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday, he and Mayor Eric Johnson have asked the Trump administration to reconsider the decision to end federal funding for its community testing sites after June 30 and instead, to extend it, as it has done before. “We really can’t afford to lose any of our resources right now.” (Fink, 6/24)