Nurses, firefighters, jail guards, grocery workers, bus drivers and scores of other essential workers will be able to get tested for coronavirus in coming days, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today.

“We want to make sure they are now eligible for tests,” he said. “We’re opening up the prioritization.”

It wasn’t immediately clear when the ramped up testing would start. The idea, Cuomo said, is to turn the state’s 5,000 pharmacies into testing sites and collectors. Those drug stores would then send the tests to one of 300 labs in the state to process the test. The governor plans to sign an executive order later today to authorize drug store testing.

The decision seems obvious, to put those who are most in harm’s way at the front of the testing line. But those tests so far have been prioritized to more people with symptoms or suspected exposure.

Currently New York is testing, on average, about 20,000 people a day. New help from the federal government will double that, Cuomo said.

New York already has conducted 777,000 tests, including another 46,000 on Friday. About 282,000 tests have come back positive. More than 10,000 positive cases were reported on Friday.

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