The province is reporting more than 1,700 new cases of COVID-19 but officials say today's case count is artificially high due to a "data catchup process."
Provincial health officials are reporting 1,747 new infections today, up from 1,468 on Saturday and 1,371 on Friday.
"Today’s case count is higher than expected due to a data catch-up process related to the provincial CCM system," a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said in an email sent out shortly before today's data was released.
Last week, the province blamed data management issues when more than 1,600 new cases were reported on Monday.
When asked about today's true total, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said she did not have that number.
"We don’t have the accurate number from that. That will be determined later on when we understand exactly the data classification that was done," she said during a news conference at Queen's Park on Sunday.
Today's total brings the rolling seven-day average of new cases in Ontario to 1,401, up from 1,069 just one week ago.
Another 15 virus-related deaths were confirmed in the province today, putting the average daily death toll at 12, unchanged from last Sunday.
None of the new deaths confirmed today involve residents of long-term care homes.
With 47,618 tests processed over the past 24 hours, the provincewide positivity rate is 3.1 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health. That figure is also unchanged from last week.
There are now 12,383 active cases of COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 10,389 one week ago.
About 601 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19, the latest data from the province indicates. That is on par with the 600 receiving treatment in hospital at this point last week.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care has risen to 282, up from 273 one week ago.
Of the new cases reported today, 545 are in Toronto, 352 are in Peel and 163 are in York Region.
Twelve new cases of the B.1.1.7 variant were confirmed in the province today, bringing the total number to 1,036. There are now 44 B.1351 variant cases in Ontario after another one was confirmed by provincial labs today.
Another 8,000 positive samples have screened positive for a variant of concern but the lineage has not yet been determined. The province has previously said that an estimated 40 per cent of all new COVID-19 cases are likely the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant.
To date, 1,158,355 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered provincewide.
People ages 80 and older will be able to book an appointment on the province's online booking portal when it launches tomorrow.
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.
