A new grant program opens this week to help restaurants and bars set up for continued outside business.

The 1,685 coronavirus hospitalizations as of Friday marked Indianas most mid-April and also up about double from late September.

In the last week, the state has also reported more than 15,000 new COVID-19 cases, with more than 150,000 total confirmed cases. The state has reported more than 1,000 cases every day since Oct. 7 -- including Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday with more than 2,000 new cases each day.

The Indiana State Department of Health's daily update of its coronavirus dashboard showed 1,548 Hoosiers are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus, the most since May 5. Of those, 434 are in intensive care, which is the most since May 17.

Indiana's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is citing two nursing homes for serious violations. Its the first time major COVID-19 workplace citations have been issued by state authorities.

The 2,880 new infections reported by the Indiana State Department of Health topped the 2,521 new infections the agency reported Saturday that had been Indiana's daily high of newly reported cases.

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday the state will devote significant resources to nursing homes across Indiana in the next few weeks.

Indiana is one of several states seeing a new wave of COVID-19 cases with some counties getting hit harder than others, and the rising numbers are creating additional challenges for schools struggling to stay open.

Indiana's average number of new COVID-19 cases has more than doubled since Gov. Eric Holcomb moved the state to Stage 5 four weeks ago and withdrew almost all restrictions.

Forty of Indiana's 92 counties were placed in orange or red levels under the agencys color-coded weekly tracking map update, while 22 counties were at those levels last week.