COVID-19 for the second day in a row Friday, as federal health officials warned infections could rise even higher over the next few weeks.The 5,092 new infections brought the total number of cases in the country since the coronavirus pandemic began to 956,660, of which 893,474 are considered recovered.The national death toll now stands at 22,826 after 36 new fatalities were reported.Friday’s daily count also raised the seven-day average past 4,100 cases, the first time in nearly two months that number had been reached.New cases have been steadily rising over the past two weeks after plateauing in late February and early March.Yet new federal modelling unveiled Friday predicted daily infections could rise even faster as multiple variants of.