Ontario is reporting just under 300 new COVID-19 cases today but provincial health officials say today's tally includes 90 cases from last year. 

The province logged 299 new COVID-19 infections today but officials say a data clean-up has inflated today's total.

"Due to a data review and clean-up, today's numbers include 90 cases from 2020 that have been included in Toronto’s case count," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said in an email.

Officials say 19 of the 25 deaths confirmed today are also dated.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases now stands at 283, down from 334 last Tuesday.

With 28,306 tests processed over the past 24 hours, officials are reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 1.6 per cent, unchanged from last week.

There are currently 276 COVID-19 patients receiving treatment in intensive care units at Ontario hospitals, down from 314 last Tuesday.

The number of active, lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario is now 2,409, down from 3,248 seven days ago.

Of the cases confirmed today, 130 are in Toronto, 69 are in Waterloo Region, 20 are in Peel Region, 11 are in Grey Bruce, 10 are in Durham Region, and 10 are in Niagara Region.

The province has administered 14,472,741 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to date, including 265,231 on Monday alone. About 30 per cent of people 12 and up in Ontario are fully vaccinated with two doses.

The uptick in vaccination rates and declining case counts have paved the way for Ontario to enter Step 2 of the Ford government's reopening plan on Wednesday.

Starting tomorrow, barbershops, salons, amusement and water parks, and malls can reopen to customers.

Indoor gatherings of up to five people and outdoor gatherings of up to 25 people are also permitted in Step 2 and bars and restaurants will be permitted to seat six people per table on patios. 

Gyms and indoor dining will remain closed until Step 3, which is expected to begin on July 21st.

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s new chief medical officer of health, says when it comes to reopening the economy, the province must proceed with “caution and care.”

Moore said Ontario must learn from other jurisdictions when it comes to the potential for explosive case growth driven by the more transmissible Delta variant, which has become the dominant strain in the province.

“We want to ensure that the gains that we’ve made are maintained and we do not step backwards in our reopening efforts and once again impose restrictions,” he said on Tuesday.

“We must learn from what’s going on internationally in Australia, and Israel, and in Europe. Stepping forward is the direction we want to take not stepping backwards.”

For that reason, Moore said he does not want to advance to Step 3 of the reopening plan earlier than the 21-day interval set out by the Ford government.

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.