Ontario is reporting more than 1,300 new COVID-19 cases and 16 additional deaths on Wednesday with more than 54,000 tests processed yesterday.
Provincial health officials logged 1,316 new infections of the novel coronavirus, up from 1,185 on Tuesday.
Ontario reported 1,631 new cases on Monday, 1,299 on Sunday and 990 on Saturday.
The seven-day rolling average now stands at 1,238, a notable rise from 1,084 a week ago.
Another 16 virus-related deaths were reported on Wednesday, raising the province’s death toll to 7,099.
For the fourth straight day, no new fatalities were reported at long-term care homes across Ontario.
Another 1,212 people recovered from the disease, resulting in 11,311 active cases of the virus in the province.
Provincial health officials are also reporting 13 new cases of the highly-contagious B.1.1.7 variant of concern. To date, there have been 921 cases of B.1.1.7 in Ontario confirmed through whole genomic sequencing.
In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto reported 428 new COVID-19 cases, up from 343 on Tuesday, while 244 new infections were logged in Peel Region, 149 in York, and 48 in both Halton and Durham regions.
Ontario labs processed 54,149 tests in the past 24-hour period, a significant increase from 33,264 a day ago.
The rise in testing contributed to a drop in the province’s positivity rate to 2.5 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent on Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Health.
COVID-19 hospitalizations also dropped slightly compared to a day ago.
A total of 678 people are hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection across the province, down from 689 on Tuesday.
Of those hospitalized, the Ministry of Health says 281 are in intensive care units (ICU) and 178 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.
However, according to data from hospitals and public health units, there are at least 837 people in hospitals across the province due to the virus.
In addition, Dr. Irfan Dhalla, Unity Health Toronto vice-president, tweeted that there are 330 COVID-19 patients in ICUs across the province, down from 344 yesterday, according to data from Critical Care Services Ontario.
To date, there have been more than 312,400 lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Ontario and over 294,000 recoveries since the first case emerged in Ontario over a year ago.
More than 279,200 people have been fully vaccinated across the province since mid-December.
As of Tuesday evening, the province has administered nearly 978,800 doses of vaccines to Ontarians. Two doses of a vaccine is required for full immunization.
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.
