Ontario’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 7,000 on Wednesday, as the province reported less than 1,000 new infections on Wednesday.

Provincial health officials logged 958 new infections and 17 additional deaths today.

Wednesday marks the sixth day of a downward trend in daily case counts.

The province reported 966 cases on Tuesday, 1,023 on Monday, 1,062 on Sunday and 1,185 on Saturday.

The seven-day rolling average is 1,084, unchanged from a week ago.

To date, there have been 7,014 virus-related deaths across the province.

Of the latest fatalities, two are among long-term care home residents.

According to the province’s latest epidemiological summary, 1,090 more people have recovered from the disease, resulting in 10,397 active cases of the virus across the province.

Provincial health officials also reported 10 more lab-confirmed cases of the highly-contagious B.1.1.7 variant of concern, first identified in the United Kingdom.

To date, there have been 552 lab-confirmed cases of B.1.1.7 across the province, 27 cases of the B.1.351 variant, initially discovered in South Africa, and three cases of the P.1 variant, first discovered in Brazil.

Hot spots within the Greater Toronto Area continue to account for the majority of new cases in Ontario.

“Locally, there are 249 new cases in Toronto, 164 in Peel and 92 in York Region,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region logged 20 cases and Durham Region reported 41 new cases.

Of Ontario’s 34 public health units, eight reported 30 or more new infections on Wednesday.

Ontario labs processed 52,600 tests yesterday, up from nearly 30,800 tests conducted the previous day.

More than 43,100 test specimens are still under investigation.

The increase in testing has contributed to a drop in the province’s positivity rate to 2.4 per cent, compared to 2.9 per cent on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health.

The number of people hospitalized across the province dropped slightly compared to a day ago.

There are currently 668 people hospitalized due to the virus in Ontario, down from 677 on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health.

However, according to numbers released by local public health units and hospitals there are 867 patients in Ontario hospitals due to COVID-19 infection.

Of those hospitalized, the Ministry of Health said there are 274 in intensive care units and 188 breathing with the help of a ventilator.

There have been more than 303,700 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the province since the virus first emerged last January and 286,352 recoveries.

More than 266,700 people fully vaccinated

To date, 266,710 Ontarians have been fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the province has administered more than 754,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with nearly 27,400 shots yesterday alone.

Two doses of a vaccine is required for full immunization.

On Friday, AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine joined Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna on the list of approved vaccines across the country. Ontario is expected to receive more than 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca on Wednesday.

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.