New York officials are urging federal regulators to allow more coronavirus testing at private and government labs amid a race to identify and contain COVID-19 disease clusters.

The push for more testing comes as New York on Monday morning became the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., with 142 out of the 573 confirmed cases across the country.

New York’s coronavirus tally has rapidly risen since testing began on Feb. 29 at the state-run Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany, which is using a test developed in New York.

On Sunday, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, approved COVID-19 testing at Northwell Health’s laboratory on Long Island, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

"While this approval is a good first step, the FDA must increase the testing capacity for the state and private labs, because the more tests we run, the more positive people we will find and the better we can control and contain the virus,” Cuomo said.

The Northwell lab began manual testing of 75 to 80 samples per day Sunday. But the plan for automated testing at state and private labs, which would allow for several thousand sample tests per day, has yet to be approved by the FDA.

“It's one thing for the federal government not to have the testing capacity in place themselves — that was bad enough — but there's no excuse for them not to be authorizing existing labs to do the work," Cuomo said Sunday.

Most of New York’s cases are in New Rochelle, tied to an Orthodox Jewish community where a lawyer was the first confirmed case in the region nearly a week ago. Westchester County had 98 cases as of Monday.

Meanwhile, New York City, with 19 cases, is also calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, to provide more coronavirus testing kits as part of the city’s public-health response.

“We need the CDC to step up so our experts can do their job and protect New Yorkers,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. “Our single greatest challenge is the lack of fast federal action to increase testing capacity, and without that, we cannot beat this epidemic back.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is under fire for what one top national health official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Friday were "missteps" that slowed efforts to test for and contain the virus.

In New York, the testing plan calls for adding other health system’s private labs, including at the University of Rochester Medical Center; New York-Presbyterian and Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan; SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse and Roswell Park in Buffalo.

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Who is getting tested for coronavirus, COVID-19, in New York?

While authorities try to ramp up testing in New York, health officials issued new rules Friday to control who is getting tested for COVID-19.

The rules distributed to medical providers noted “this guidance is necessary to ensure that New York State prioritizes the resources to meet the most urgent public health need.”

The testing priorities include:

A person who has come within proximate contact (same classroom, office, or gatherings) of another person known to be positive.

(same classroom, office, or gatherings) of another person known to be positive. A person who has traveled to a country that the CDC has issued a Level 2 or Level 3 Travel Health Notice, and shows symptoms of illness. On Monday, Level 3 notices covered China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. Level 2 notices covered Japan.

that the CDC has issued a Level 2 or Level 3 Travel Health Notice, and shows symptoms of illness. On Monday, Level 3 notices covered China, South Korea, Italy and Iran. Level 2 notices covered Japan. A person who is quarantined (mandatory or precautionary) and has shown symptoms of COVID-19 illness.

(mandatory or precautionary) and has shown symptoms of COVID-19 illness. A person who is symptomatic and has not tested positive for any other infection.

and has not tested positive for any other infection. Other cases where the facts and circumstances warrant as determined by the treating clinician in consultation with state and local department of health officials.

Cuomo talked about the need to prioritize testing during a briefing Monday, describing himself as an “improbable positive,” as opposed to a probable case that could reveal a potential COVID-19 hot spot similar to New Rochelle.

“We’re looking for the probable positives, we’re not looking for a random sample,” he said.

Cuomo conceded, however, he may have had contact at some point with Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who has tested positive for COVID-19. Details of the contact were unclear.

Cuomo said Cotton's staff will now be tested.

“He is going to be on quarantine. He will be working at home," Cuomo said. "He’s the executive director of the Port Authority, so he’s been at the airports, obviously, when many people were coming back with the virus.”

More:Coronavirus in New York: How local health departments are responding

How much does coronavirus, COVID-19 testing cost in New York?

State regulators last week also ordered health insurers to waive cost sharing associated with testing for COVID-19, including emergency room, urgent care and office visits.

New Yorkers on Medicaid will also not be required to pay a co-pay for any testing related to COVID-19.

For people without health insurance, there are existing rules in New York related to charity care based on income eligibility and other factors.

For further details about the costs for accessing health care, contact the state Department of Financial Services at (800) 342-3736, or via its website dfs.ny.gov.

Cuomo also said he will amend the state's new Paid Sick Leave law in the state budget for the fiscal year that starts April 1 so employees cannot be fired if they stay home from work because they are being isolated or quarantined as a result of the virus.

New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker also urged New Yorkers who are ill, including with symptoms of coronavirus, to call health care providers to discuss the situation before visiting a medical facility.

The goal is to allow providers to properly isolate suspected COVID-19 cases in order to protect workers and other patients.

Meanwhile, doctors nationally are bracing for a rapid rise in U.S. coronavirus cases as state and local public health labs ramp up testing following weeks of delays due to a flawed test by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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How many coronavirus test kits does the US have?

Fauci told ABC News Sunday there are 75,000 virus test kits in the U.S., but that number will "radically" increase in the next couple of weeks.

On Thursday, Vice President MIke Pence said the U.S. did not have enough tests "to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward." But the vice president said kits for 1.2 million should be available next week, the BBC reported.

Cuomo said the goal is get up to 1,000 test a day in New York. They are currently doing a few hundred a day.

How many labs are doing the tests?

According to the Association of Public Health Laboratories, there are 69 local and state public health labs that cover 46 states, including Washington D.C.

The five states that await lab verification are Wyoming, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia. There are 12 additional labs in the verification progress, three of which should be testing by the weekend.

When all the selected labs have been verified, there will be 100 local and state public health labs testing, with a potential testing capacity of 10,000 tests per day.

A few private companies are also testing.

LabCorp developed its own test and began testing Thursday. According to the company, the new test detects the presence of the underlying virus that causes COVID-19.

Quest Diagnostics said it can start receiving samples from doctors for testing on Monday. It’s unclear if only select labs or all labs will be testing.

More:How a New Rochelle synagogue has shown 'resilience and maturity' amid a coronavirus quarantine

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

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David Robinson is the state health care reporter for the USA TODAY Network New York. He can be reached atdrobinson@gannett.com and followed on Twitter:@DrobinsonLoHud