Nearly 580 patients with COVID-19 are in Ontario intensive care units, according to the latest data released by the province, which confirmed another 40 net virus-related deaths today.

Officials say there at now approximately 3,595 patients with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals, including 579 in the ICU. This is up from 2,419 and 412 last Sunday. Officials have cautioned that hospitalization numbers are typically lower than the true total over the weekends due to a lack of reporting by some hospitals.

The province did not provide a breakdown today of the vaccination status of hospitalized patients or the percentage of people admitted for COVID-19 and those admitted for other reasons.

As of Jan. 13, 71 children between the ages of zero and four are in hospital with COVID-19, according to Public Health Ontario. This age group has the highest hospitalization rate of any other age cohort under 60.

Another 40 net virus-related deaths were logged on Sunday, bringing the province’s death toll to 10,605. There were nine deaths confirmed among long-term care residents today.

With 52,676 tests processed over the past 24 hours, officials are reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 22.7 per cent, down from 27.7 per cent last week. Ontario has seen a steady decline in the overall positivity rate in the past week.

Another 10,450 COVID-19 cases were confirmed today but the number of new infections in the province is likely significantly higher due to testing restrictions.

Of the new cases confirmed today, 1,456 involve people who are not vaccinated, 360 involve those who are partially vaccinated, 8,079 involve people who have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 555 involve those with an unknown vaccination status.

There are an estimated 424 ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks at long-term care homes in the province, up from 358 seven days ago.

At least 91.4 per cent of Ontarians 12 and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 88.7 per cent have received two shots.

The City of Toronto said Sunday that 50 per cent of children aged five to 11 in the city have now received at least one dose.

"This milestone means more than 102,000 children are now helping protect their families, schools and communities against COVID-19 and the highly transmissible Omicron variant," a news release issued by the city said.

"With in-person schooling resuming tomorrow across Toronto, Toronto Public Health (TPH) has urged parents and caregivers to book appointments and have children vaccinated as soon as possible."

Many students across the province will return to in-person learning on Monday for the first time since before the winter break. Ontario students were initially supposed to return to school on Jan. 3 but the start date was postponed twice due to the rapid spread of the more infectious Omicron variant.

The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.