INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s governor has extended the state’s COVID-19 public health emergency while he is in discussions with health care providers about a new statewide executive order amid the state’s surge in coronavirus cases.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb on Monday signed his 18th extension of the public health emergency he first issued in March 2020. The new emergency continues until Sept. 30 and keeps the state eligible for several federal emergency relief programs.

The emergency order cited the ongoing threat from the highly contagious delta variant for a “significant and serious increase in new confirmed cases and hospitalizations and tragically continued daily deaths from COVID-19.”

With about 52% of eligible Indiana residents vaccinated against COVID-19, health officials say about 97% of people hospitalized in the state with the illness are unvaccinated. Indiana hospitalizations have surged nearly 300% in the past month. A record number of infections have also been reported by Indiana schools.

Holcomb, however, signed only a two-day extension of an executive order that includes temporary licensing of retired and out-of-state health care workers. The governor’s office said a new order for September would be issued Wednesday after talks with “healthcare stakeholders to evaluate pertinent information that supports hospitals during the current COVID surge.”