Ontario reported a modest decline in new COVID-19 cases on Sunday but deaths continued to rise, reaching their highest point since the end of the spring.

Officials reported 1,248 new cases of COVID-19 and 29 new deaths on Sunday.

The single-day death toll was the highest Ontario had seen since June 19, when 31 deaths were reported.

Ontario reported a record 1,581 new cases on Saturday, as well as 1,396 cases on Friday and 1,575 on Thursday.

"Locally, there are 364 new cases in Toronto, 308 in Peel and 125 in York Region," Health Minister Christine Elliott wrote on Twitter.

But Public Health Ontario said Toronto failed to enter 40 additional cases into the province’s system, meaning that city’s total for Sunday was 404 cases.

Provincial labs processed more than 42,000 tests in the previous 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of at least 3.8 per cent.

There are now 12,345 active cases of novel coronavirus infection in the province, up from 9,105 one week ago.

At least 3,361 people have died of the illness since it arrived in Ontario in late January.

Of Sunday’s 29 deaths, 20 involved residents of the long-term care system.

There are now 96 active outbreaks of COVID-19 in Ontario’s long-term care system.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region reported 62 new cases, Halton Region reported 54 new cases and Hamilton reported 34 new cases.

A count of most hospitals by the province found 479 people being treated for COVID-19 on Sunday, down from more than 500 on Saturday.

Of those, 118 were in intensive care and 67 were breathing with the help of a ventilator.