Ontario reported 1,563 new COVID-19 cases and 88 more deaths on Thursday, while test positivity fell to its lowest point since late October.

Ontario reported 1,172 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 745 on Tuesday, but both counts were impacted by a major transition in data management systems at several public health units including Toronto.

There have now been 6,393 deaths due to lab-confirmed COVID-19 since the pandemic began in the province, including 379 in the past week.

The province reported 89 deaths, a second-wave standalone high, on Jan. 20.

Thirty-six of the deaths reported Thursday involved residents of long-term care homes.

There are 16,330 remaining active cases of novel coronavirus infection in the province, alongside 250,937 recoveries.

Active cases have declined by almost 5,000 in the past week.

Across the GTA, Peel Region reported 245 cases, Toronto reported 584 cases, York Region reported 132 cases, Halton reported 58 new cases, Durham reported 34 new cases and Hamilton reported 78.

Provincial labs processed 64,467 specimens in the past 24 hours, up from 52,400 in the previous period.

Thursday’s results generated a positivity rate of at least 2.6 per cent.

The last time such a low positivity rate was detected was on Oct. 24.

Meanwhile, hospitalizations continued to hover after weeks of healthy declines.

There were 1,101 people in hospital receiving treatment for COVID-19 on Thursday, up from at least 1,066 on Wednesday.

Of those, 323 were in intensive care units, down 13 from Wednesday and 241 were breathing with the help of a ventilator, down 13 from Wednesday.

Officials said another 6,700 vaccine doses were administered in the past 24 hours, taking the number of shots completed in the province to 355,055, with 80,977 people finished the 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.