Ontario is reporting more than 1,100 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, a slight decrease compared to a day ago.

Health officials logged 1,185 new infections, down from 1,258 on Friday.

Provincial health officials reported 1,138 new cases on Thursday, 1,054 on Wednesday and 975 on Tuesday.

The province’s seven-day rolling average is now 1,108, compared to 1,016 a week ago.

According to the province’s latest epidemiological summary, 984 more people recovered from the virus, resulting in 10,479 active cases across the province.

Ontario also reported 16 additional fatalities on Saturday, raising the province’s virus-related death toll to 6,960.

Of the latest deaths, one was a long-term care home resident.

Most of the new infections continue to be in hot spots in the Greater Toronto Area.

The Ministry of Health reported 331 new cases in Toronto, 220 in Peel Region and 119 in York Region.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region logged 32 new infections and Durham Region reported 36 new cases.

Eight of Ontario’s 34 public health units are reporting 40 or more new COVID-19 cases.

The latest numbers come after the Ford government invoked its “emergency brake” yesterday placing both the Simcoe-Muskoka District Health Unit and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit under the strictest grey lockdown category in its tiered framework for COVID-19 restrictions.

Simcoe-Muskoka logged 35 new cases on Saturday, up from 25 on Friday, while Thunder Bay reported 55 new infections, 13 more than a day ago.

Provincial health officials also reported additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants of concern on Saturday.

Thirty-one more lab-confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, first found in the United Kingdom, and 11 additional cases of the B.1.351 variant, initially discovered in South Africa, were recorded by the province.

To date, there have been 508 confirmed cases of B.1.1.7, 25 cases of B.1.351 and two cases of the P.1 variant, first discovered in Brazil, in Ontario.

Yesterday, Ontario labs processed more than 59,400 tests, down from 64,049 tests the previous day.

The province’s positivity rate has dipped to 2.1 per cent, compared to 2.3 per cent a day ago, according to the Ministry of Health.

Across Ontario, 680 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection, down from 683 on Friday.

Of those hospitalized, 276 are in intensive care units and 182 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

To date, there have been more than 299,700 lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 282,315 recoveries across Ontario since Jan. 2020

Nearly 261,000 people fully vaccinated

As of Friday evening, 260,972 people have been fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Two doses of a vaccine administered several weeks apart is required for full immunization.

To date, the province has administered more than 668,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with more than 24,300 on Friday alone.

Yesterday, Health Canada announced AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine would be joining Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines on the list of those authorized for use in the country.

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.