Michigan more than doubled its novel coronavirus testing capability Thursday, when a new batch of tests were received from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The added test kits will allow state health officials to test more than 300 Michiganders for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

“We are currently able to provide same-day turnaround for test results,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at MDHHS.

To date, there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan, however, the results of eight new tests were pending Thursday evening.

In all, 16 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Michigan. The results of eight previous tests have already come back negative, according to the MDHHS.

So far this year, 406 people in Michigan have been referred to public health officials for assessment for COVID-19 and monitoring. Of them, 82 remain under active monitoring.

In addition, the MDHHS is in the process of surveying hospital labs across the state to determine which can begin to provide COVID-19 testing. A Laboratory Leadership Service Fellow has been requested from CDC to help Michigan hospitals with the validation process.

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The new tests came one day after the CDC loosened restrictions on who should qualify for testing.

The agency now says it's up to a doctor's discretion to determine whether a person should be tested for COVID-19. However, it advises doctors that they should make those decisions based on how widespread COVID-19 is in the area, whether the person traveled to an area where the virus is widespread or has COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough or difficulty breathing. It also recommends first ruling out other sources of illness, such as influenza.

The CDC has been criticized for initially sending states faulty test kits and strictly limiting who qualifies for testing.

Initially, only people who had symptoms and had traveled to mainland China or had close contact with someone who'd been to China fit the criteria for testing.

But by the end of February, the restrictions were widened to include people with COVID-19 symptoms unexplained by other illnesses, and people with symptoms who also were health care workers and others with close contact to COVID-19 patients, and people with recent travel to China, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan, where the virus is widespread.

Michigan health officials have followed CDC guidance on who should qualify for COVID-19 testing, Khaldun said.

"We have been messaging and communicating with all of our health care providers, our local health departments, and they have been regularly calling us to ask about criteria and those who have met the criteria have been tested," Khaldun told the Free Press on Wednesday.

"I certainly share the concern that just like other diseases, including the flu, you only have the data that you have," she said, "which is why I say we have no known confirmed cases here in the state of Michigan."

Vice President Mike Pence told reporters at a coronavirus briefing Wednesday that the federal government is distributing 2,500 test kits this week, and will make more than 1.5 million tests available to hospitals in parts of the country that have been hard hit by the virus.

Contact Kristen Jordan Shamus: 313-222-5997 or kshamus@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.