The state's contract with Kentucky-based Gravity Diagnostics will run through June of next year, with an option to extend it further if needed.

As Indiana state health officials ramped up COVID-19 vaccination efforts this year, resources were diverted away from testing individuals for the virus. But within the past several weeks, the number of tests administered and the demand for tests has increased.

The state is in the midst of another COVID-19 surge. The delta variant of the virus has contributed to a more than 400 percent increase in the average number of new cases per day over the last month. In that same time, however, average new tests have only gone by up less than 200 percent.

The Indiana Department of Health reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases Friday. That comes as cases – and hospitalizations – have continued to grow in the last several weeks.

Indiana is closing its OptumServe COVID-19 testing sites at the end of June. The sites, set up early in the pandemic, have provided more than 541,000 free tests since May of last year.

After setting more than a dozen COVID-19 records between October and December, Indiana has started the new year with significantly lower cases and deaths than those record-setting months.

The Marion County Public Health Department is moving one of its three COVID testing sites, the new location opens at the Marion County Fairgrounds this week.

The University of Notre Dame made headlines this week, after mandating students be tested for COVID-19 before leaving campus.

Indiana has a new school COVID-19 case dashboard in the works, and the public will be able to see the number of cases reported in schools across the state.

The new COVID-19 testing sites are going up around the state, and will be run by local health departments. The state will provide funding to help those sites stay operational for the next two years.