Ontario is reporting 31 more deaths linked to COVID-19 today, the highest daily death toll confirmed in the province since late May.

Provincial health officials say there are now 2,594 patients with COVID-19 in hospitals, surpassing the record 2,472 hospitalizations reported on Friday.

Of those in hospital, 580 are not vaccinated, 133 are partially vaccinated, 1,490 are fully immunized, and 391 have an unknown vaccination status.

As of Jan. 6, Public Health Ontario said 51 children between the ages of 0 and 4 were in hospital with COVID-19.

Officials say the number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care jumped to 385 today, up from 338 on Friday. There are now 219 patients with COVID-19 breathing with the assistance of a ventilator, an increase of 42 from Friday.

Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said of those in the ICU, 248 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status while 137 are fully immunized.

The 31 deaths recorded today is the highest number of virus-related fatalities reported in a 24-hour period since May 22. One death was subtracted from the province's total today, bringing Ontario's overall death toll since March 2020 to 10,345.

Provincial labs confirmed 13,362 new infections today but with limited testing capacity reserved exclusively for select groups, most members of the public do not have access to a COVID-19 test and as a result, the number of new cases in the province each day is likely substantially higher than what is being reported.

Officials say 1,714 cases today involve people who are unvaccinated, 398 involve those who are partially vaccinated, 10,865 are involve fully vaccinated individuals, and 384 involve people with an unknown vaccination status.

The province processed 55,700 tests over the past 24 hours and is reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 30.6 per cent. The province now has a testing backlog of 104,277.

There are now at least 342 known COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care homes in the province, up from 312 on Friday. Six of the deaths recorded today involve residents of long-term care.

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.