Ontario confirmed 18 more COVID-19 deaths and fewer than 1,000 patients hospitalized with the virus as most remaining pandemic restrictions were lifted Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health says 16 of the deaths occurred over the past 18 days, with one on Feb. 28, five on Feb. 27 and two on Feb. 26.

Due to a data cleanup, the ministry says two deaths that occurred more than a month ago were added to the province’s cumulative death total today.

There have been 12,451 virus-related deaths since March 2020.

There are currently 914 people hospitalized with the virus, up from 849 yesterday but down from 1,038 a week ago.

Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted Tuesday that 45 per cent of hospital patients were admitted for COVID-19 and 55 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for the virus.

Of those in hospital, 278 are in intensive care, compared to 319 a week ago. ICU occupancy has been steadily declining for the past month.

Eighty per cent of ICU patients were admitted for COVID-19 and 20 per cent were admitted for other reasons but have tested positive for the virus, Elliott says.

Provincial labs processed more than 13,000 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 10.3 per cent, compared to 6.9 per cent a week ago, the ministry says.

Ontario confirmed 1,176 new coronavirus cases today, but health officials warn that is an underestimate due to testing restrictions.

Among the latest cases, 858 of the individuals are fully vaccinated, 165 are unvaccinated, 27 are partially vaccinated and 126 have an unknown vaccination status.

So far, over 89 per cent of eligible Ontarians aged five years and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 85 per cent have received two doses and nearly 50 per cent have received three doses.

To date, there have been 1,103,187 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,073,281 recoveries since Jan. 2020.

Ontario ended most of its COVID-19 public health measures today, including proof of vaccination in indoor settings, such as restaurants, gyms and movie theatres.

However, the vaccination certificate system is optional for businesses that choose to keep it.

Meanwhile, all capacity limits have been lifted for sporting and concert venues and for social gatherings.

Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Zain Chagla says there likely won’t be a big rise in cases as restrictions are lifted because of the high number of fully vaccinated individuals.

“Most people have been vaccinated. There's a large amount of immunity that's gone through the population because of Omicron and so we are at a very different place than we were at the beginning of the Omicron wave,” he told CP24 Tuesday morning.

During a press conference on Monday, Premier Doug Ford said the removal of mask mandates is possibly happening later this month.

"We aren't far away, so let’s all continue working together," Ford said. "What I'm hearing (is) over the next few weeks, maybe after March Break."

Last month, Ontario’s top doctor said mask mandates would likely be lifted “simultaneously” across most sectors, including schools.

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.