Ontario is reporting another week-over-week drop in the number of COVID-19 patients receiving care in Ontario hospitals as the province prepares to lift most public health restrictions on Tuesday.

Provincial health officials say there are currently 849 patients with COVID-19 in hospital, up slightly from 842 on Sunday but down from 1,064 one week ago. This number includes 279 patients in intensive care, down from 320 last Monday.

It should be noted that not all hospitals report data to the province early in the week.

Another three virus-related deaths were confirmed over the past 24 hours.

Officials say 1,315 COVID-19 cases were confirmed by provincial labs yesterday but that number is not an accurate reflection of the true burden of infection in Ontario due to restrictions on who is eligible for testing.

Of the cases confirmed today, 146 involve those who are unvaccinated, 31 involve people who are partially vaccinated, 1,072 involve those who have received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 66 involve people with an unknown vaccination status.

With 12,116 tests processed over the past 24 hours, officials are reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 8.9 per cent, down from 11.7 per cent one week ago. The province has said it has the capacity to process more than 70,000 tests per day but has not surpassed 30,000 tests in a 24-hour period in the past month. Despite the excess capacity, the Ford government has not opened up testing to most members of the general public.

On Tuesday, the province will lift all remaining capacity limits in indoor settings and will scrap its vaccine certificate program, meaning businesses will be able to choose whether to require patrons to show proof of vaccination before entering.

Masking in indoor settings remains in effect in the province.

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.