INDIANAPOLIS — The demand is real.
Tori Ledezma is among the dozens making thousands of COVID-19 test kits at Aria Diagnostics in Indianapolis.
These jobs did not exist in March.
The employees have gone from making 37,000 test kits a week in April to 150,000 tests in June.
Ledezma is a Purdue University student. A sophomore who plans to major in pre-med.
"As a person going into the pre-med field, I think it's cool to see that sort of process that's actually happening since as a student and growing up you don't really get to see that I think it's pretty cool to see it from a different side," Ledezma said.
The recent COVID-19 surges out West and South has meant test kits going to Houston, San Antonio, Waco, and Dallas, Texas; Naples, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Yogi Rowe is a senior at Carmel High School. He's using this experience to help with his interest in the medical field.
"I think it's good to get even as a little medical experience as you can even though it's not as hands-on as a lab or anything like that so you can kind of see how the world works against a medical threat like a pandemic," Rowe said.
Aria Diagnostics expects to expand its workforce as there's a need for more kits made in Indianapolis.
"The demand actually picked up quite a bit. We are producing anywhere between 125 to 175,000 kits each week," Trevor Knowles, an operator at Aria Diagnostics, said.
Aria Diagnostics is providing test results for the Texas and Florida cities that use their kits. A lab in Phoenix is handling the results for Arizona.
