Ontario is reporting a substantial week-over-week drop in the number of new COVID-19 infections today with fewer than 700 new cases confirmed over the past 24 hours.

Provincial health officials logged 677 new cases today, up from 463 on Wednesday but down significantly from 864 last Thursday.

The seven-day rolling average of new infections dropped to 665 today, down from 732 one week ago.

With 37,630 tests processed over the past 24 hours, the provincewide positivity rate is now 1.9 per cent, down from 2.4 per cent last week.

Of the cases confirmed today, 529 cases, or 78 per cent, are in individuals who are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 148, or 22 per cent, are in those who are fully immunized.

About 70 per cent of all Ontarians have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Toronto reported 136 new infections today, Peel Region saw 76, and York Region logged 73.

The number of known, active infections in the province is now 5,845, down from 6,129 last Thursday.

Seven more virus-related deaths were reported over the past 24 hours, including one that the province says occurred last month, bringing Ontario's COVID-19 death toll to 9,677.

The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care is climbing once again. The Ministry of Health says there are currently 193 patients infected with COVID-19 receiving treatment in the ICU, up from 187 on Wednesday and 191 last week.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott says 181 of those patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 12 are fully immunized.

As of Sept. 21, there were 16 children between the ages of 0 and 9 in hospital with COVID-19, according to data released by Public Health Ontario.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said while she is happy to see that cases have not spiked in the last few weeks as children return to school, the region is still “not out of the woods yet.”

“Kids just went back to school and as the weather begins to cool, more and more people are going to be heading indoors to socialize,” she said.

“This worries me because while 78 per cent of Peel residents 12 plus have received both doses of the vaccine, there are still roughly 300,000 residents who are either partially vaccinated or unvaccinated altogether.”

This morning, one day after the Ford government launched its new vaccine certificate program, the Toronto Blue Jays announced that they plan to expand capacity inside the Rogers Centre but fans who want to attend games going forward must show proof of vaccination before entering the building.

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.