The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday granted approval for Northwell Labs to begin testing for novel coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. 

The approval comes after Cuomo has sought to expand the state's capacity to test for the virus, which is currently being done at Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany.

Meanwhile, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo will also begin testing for the virus as the state's capacity expands to six sites. 

New York's confirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday surpassed 100 people, and the number will likely grow even more with a second lab approved for the tests.

Cuomo, in a statement on Sunday evening, said the state still needs automated testing approved by the federal government so thousands of tests can be performed in a day. Testing capacity at Northwell will lead to the processing of 75 to 80 samples through a manual procedure.

"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 in a statement.

"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."

Earlier on Sunday, Cuomo had traveled to the facility on Long Island to push the federal government to expand New York's testing capacity.

Cuomo has become increasingly critical of the federal government's response to the virus. He criticized an $8 billion federal package approved last week, which he said allocated $35 million to New York — an "insufficient" amount to provide a response, Cuomo said.