KITCHENER -- Region of Waterloo Public Health has confirmed 71 new cases of COVID-19, as the Friday afternoon update marks another stark increase in daily case counts.

The online dashboard update  also shows one new related death as well as 26 more cases considered resolved.

The active case count has increased by 39, while the number of hospitalizations has gone down by three and the number of people being treated in the ICU has gone down by two.

The active facility outbreak count has also gone up by one.

This brings the COVID-19 totals for Waterloo Region to 10,608 confirmed cases, 9,976 resolved, 224 deaths, 396 active cases, 29 hospitalizations, five patients being treated in the ICU, and 22 active outbreaks.

Testing partners have conducted 3,781 COVID-19 tests since the Tuesday update. This number is roughly one per cent of the 371,652 total number of tests that have been conducted in Waterloo Region.

The area also saw its positivity rate increase from 2.5 to 2.8 per cent, while the reproductive rate went up from 1.0 to 1.1.

On Friday, Waterloo regional police added two more cases to their COVID-19 totals.

Speaking at the region's COVID-19 update on Friday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said officials have seen a growing number of cases in the last three days.

"I am becoming concerned," Dr. Wang said. "We will have to watch our indicators closely.

"I know it's been a long road and I know it's hard to not be with family and friends, but we are in an extremely precarious time."

On Thursday, 69 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed In Waterloo Region, which marked the highest increase in nearly three weeks at the time.

In Ontario, provincial health officials logged 1,258 infections of the novel coronavirus, as well as 28 more deaths linked to the disease and 1,007 case considered resolved.

Following the same recent pattern as Waterloo Region, this marked the fourth straight day of case counts increasing.

There are currently 10,294 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, down from 10,550 one week ago.