New COVID-19 cases in Florida have been gradually increasing, according to areport released Firday by the state Department of Health.
According to the report, the state had 20,860 new cases reported during the week of April 15 to Thursday, up from 15,623 cases the previous week. It also was the fifth week in a row of increases, after Florida had 8,038 reported cases during the week of March 11-17.
Most of the new cases during the week were recorded in Miami-Dade (6,170) and Broward (2,748) counties.
The state's positivity rate for new cases has risen to 6.1 percent.
Meantime, Florida is nearing a reported 74,000 resident deaths from COVID-19. The report said 73,830 residents had died as of Thursday. That was up from 73,538 reported two weeks earlier.
Because of lags in reporting, it is not clear when the additional deaths occurred.
