For weeks, Virginia has lagged behind much of the U.S. in testing. Data shows that Virginia consistently ranks near the bottom when it comes to number of tests conducted per capita. And as the state plans to reopen on Friday—though it will delay Northern Virginia’s reopening until after Memorial Day—the commonwealth is still not meeting Gov. Ralph Northam’s testing goal of 10,000 tests a day.

This week, Virginia’s Department of Emergency Management signed contracts with three commercial labs in an effort to ramp up testing as the state gears up to reopen. The contracts were first reported by VPM.

The deals come after private biotech firms told WAMU last month that they had thousands of tests sitting unused even as the state faced pressure to scale up testing.

Data tracked by journalist Alejandro Alvarez shows that the state has only hit that 10,000-test goal once since March, and a recent seven-day analysis shows that the state currently averages 5,998 tests per day. (The highest test count in May so far has been 9,801, recorded Monday.)

While the numbers show an improvement from a month ago, when the state averaged just over 2,000 daily tests, Virginia has drawn national criticism for skewing its data by reporting both viral and antibody tests in the same metric—a method health experts say makes no sense. On Thursday, the health department released data broken out by PCR (diagnostic) and antibody (serology) tests for the first time, and said it will continue to do so going forward.

Former VDH commissioner Dr. Karen Remley, who co-directs the state’s “testing task force,” says that the new contracts will provide an additional 5,000 tests per week at an estimated weekly cost of $500,000 (at $100 per test, if the state uses all 5,000). While the state already receives tests from the major clinical network LabCorp, Remley says the three new contracts will help the state double its daily testing capacity in longterm care facilities.

At least 15,000 of those tests are coming from Next Molecular Analytics in Chester, Va.—the lab is set to test samples through June 30, according to its president, Thomas Reynolds. Deals were also struck with Genetworx in Glen Alen, Va., and North Carolina-based Mako Medical.

State officials say the majority of these tests will go towards stopping the outbreaks at nursing homes, correctional facilities, and poultry plants—the National Guard has dedicated “strike teams” to test patients at nursing homes, which have counted for more than half of the outbreaks across Maryland and Virginia.

Still, as Gov. Ralph Northam plans the reopening of the commonwealth, touting declines in hospitalizations and percentages of positive tests, questions about the state’s overall testing capabilities remain.

Crystal Icenhour, the CEO of Sterling-based lab Aperiomics, points out that the state’s testing has been inconsistent, reporting 8,000 tests administered some days, and closer to 3,000 tests on others.

“While that 10,000 test per day goal would be a step in the right direction, we should be considering that the baseline for appropriate testing and not the end goal,” Icenhour said in an email. “This is not something public health labs can do alone—the capacity and expertise in private labs exists and must be utilized if we’re going to test at an appropriate scale that allows us to get back to something resembling normal.”

Icenhour says partnering with private labs is necessary as the state reopens, and that doing so will help “catch potential outbreaks before it’s too late.”

The health department assesses its inventory and requests daily, and will consider expanding its contracts with labs at the end of the month—including its contract with LabCorp—if needed.