A Christmas tradition lives on this year despite some major changes due to COVID-19.

The Sunday Morning Club, which typically hosts close to 2,000 people at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center for Christmas dinner, served things up a little differently during the coronavirus pandemic. This year meals were handed out at a drive-through.

In a normal year, children get toys and strangers sit together -- celebrating.

“People were from across the bridge and we all connected and everything,” said Bellevue resident Terry Stafford.

Because of COVID-19, people couldn’t gather. The club made adjustments and partnered with the Parish Kitchen. There, volunteers passed out to-go meals, paired with all the usual Christmas fixings.

Families could walk-up or drive-by to pick up their meals.

“God is good. That’s good, that’s wonderful, nice thing," Sandy Garret drove by to say.

For club president Tom Hall, the tradition is too important to skip a year.

“I do it just to help people that don’t have anywhere else to go for Christmas," Hall said. "It just makes you feel good. It’s for everybody, it doesn’t just have to be the homeless or the needy, if you just don’t have anybody to eat dinner with, but it’s a little different this year because you’re going have to take it with you, but that’s our main goal is to just help anybody we can.”

COVINGTON, Ky. — As the COVID-19 delta variant spreads, a Northern Kentucky business is doing its part to help the country stay healthy and safe.

Gravity Diagnostics used to have 45 employees and a 7,000-square-foot lab, and they handled about 15 COVID-19 samples a day. Now they have over 400 employees and a 70,000-square-foot lab and they process about 27,000 samples a day, according to CEO Anthony Remington.

Out of those employees, Remington said six full-time employees in the lab have PhDs, and they have been helpful to track and monitor the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19.

"They've been kind of surprised to see how quickly delta has taken over," he said. "So it is definitely a surge in delta. That is definitely real."

Remington also said he wants his company to be a service to the community, and the focus has always been on ICU patients and those in nursing homes.

"If you have 100 people in your hospital and you don't know who has COVID and who doesn't, if you can find out the same day or the next day, it helps make better decisions quicker, and that's always been our focus," he said. "Testing and getting results the day we get the sample has a value."

Gravity Diagnostics offers free drive-thru COVID-19 testing in the parking lot of 302 W. 4th St. in Covington from 6 a.m. to 1p.m. The company plans to extend these hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. within the next week.