JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Data released Friday morning by the state health department showed the largest daily increase to date -- for the second day in a row -- in Florida’s coronavirus case total, with 1,902 confirmed cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Florida now has 70,971 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

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The surge of cases over the last 10 days coincides both with the reopening of Florida’s economy following the statewide Safer at Home lockdown and with an increase in the state’s testing capacity.

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Friday again pointed to that increase in testing as a likely reason for the rising numbers in the raw data, but said the numbers he watches closely are the percent of positive cases and the city’s hospitalizations for coronavirus, which he said are going down.

The state now reports 11,706 patients have been hospitalized with coronavirus since the pandemic began. The vast majority of those patients are 55 years old or older, according to the state’s data. Looking over the last 10 days, the state has averaged 129 additional hospitalizations a day. The state does not release data specifically on how many patients are currently hospitalized with coronavirus.

As of Friday’s report from the health department, Florida had administered 1.33 million tests for COVID-19 with a 5.3% positive rate. The state data indicate that a person can be counted more than once in the overall testing number, because patients often need multiple tests over days or weeks before they are cleared to return to normal activities. The positive cases the state lists, however, are only for the first time the patient tests positive.

The state has now reported 2,877 deaths, including two additional deaths in Alachua (68-year-old man) and Flagler (80-year-old man) counties.

Complete coronavirus data for Northeast Florida counties

Tracking the last 10 days of coronavirus case jumps (and hospitalization increases) in Florida: