On the heels of his announcement that California has signed a groundbreaking contract with a major diagnostics company to increase the state’s capacity to test for COVID-19, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed an executive order to help the state build out its own laboratory capabilities.

Friday’s order will expedite efforts by the Department of General Services and the Department of Public Health to establish and operate up to three sites for use as laboratories to increase the state’s COVID-19 testing capacity.

California is aiming to stand up a laboratory facility and begin processing tens of thousands of additional tests by November 1 and run at full capacity by ­no later than March 1, 2021.

Under the deal announced earlier this week, the state will be able to process up to an additional 150,000 COVID-19 diagnostic tests a day, with a contractual turnaround time of 24 to 48 hours.

The text of the governor’s executive order can be found here.