Ontario reported 1,172 more COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, along with 67 more deaths, as an ongoing data reconciliation effort between Toronto and the provincial government clouds the accuracy of the data.

Ontario reported 745 cases on Tuesday (completely excluding Toronto and several other public health units) as well as 1,969 cases on Monday and 1,848 on Sunday.

The Ministry of Health says it is reconciling its database with Toronto’s, which was separated out early in the pandemic because Toronto had set up its own out of frustration with the quality of Ontario’s system early in the pandemic.

But it appeared all the discrepancies were rectified on Wednesday, as the province said that Toronto reported 444 cases on Wednesday, with Peel at 199 and York Region at 110.

Of the 67 deaths reported Wednesday, 29 involved residents of the long-term care system.

There are now at least 16,811 active cases of novel coronavirus infection across the province, with 6,305 deaths and 248,981 recoveries since last January.

One week ago, there were 21,932 active cases and 5,958 deaths.

Provincial labs processed 52,418 test specimens in the past 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of at least 3.3 per cent.

A further 44,606 specimens remain under investigation.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue their slow climb downward.

The Ministry of Health says there were 1,066 people in hospital for COVID-19 treatment on Wednesday, down from at least 1,382 one week ago.

Of those, 336 were in intensive care and 254 were breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Continued surveillance for the new more infectious B.1.1.7 and B.1.353 coronavirus variants continued Wednesday, with labs revising downward the number of cases detected since December to 107, from 110 on Tuesday.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region reported 44 cases, Hamilton reported 52 cases and Durham Region reported 42 cases.

Another 3,716 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 348,331.

The province says 74,994 people have completed the full two-dose inoculation.

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.