This proposal is intended to develop novel clinical diagnostics for, and increase our understanding of, the diversity, evolution, and spread of the newly emerged SARS-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and other respiratory disease-causing pathogens in the United States. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is associated with mild to severe respiratory disease, which can be fatal. The novel viral etiological agent was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China following an outbreak of pneumonia in individuals associated with a seafood market, and has since spread globally. Originally named “2019 novel coronavirus”, the virus has since been renamed severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). As of 10 February 2020, this includes 40,554 confirmed cases and 910 deaths within 25 countries1. There have been 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States2, one of which was identified in Boston, MA in an individual who recently returned from China3. As public health agencies continue to monitor, track, and attempt to control its spread, it is most crucial that they are equipped with the most effective tools to detect SARS-CoV-2 and distinguish it from other common causes of similar respiratory illness. This proposal addresses the critical gap in clinical diagnostics amidst the quickly moving COVID-19 outbreak by advancing multiplexed and point of care tools for screening a large number of respiratory disease samples in a public health lab setting. It builds upon the genomic disease surveillance aims of the Viral project within our existing Genomic Centers for Infectious Disease (NIAID), but accounts for the increased costs based on the scale of work related to outbreak response. The tools generated by this project specifically address a glaring need at the public health laboratory level and have the potential to accelerate their investigative abilities for undiagnosed respiratory disease.