Ontario is reporting more than 1,800 new cases of COVID-19 and a record-high number of tests processed in the last 24 hours.
On Saturday, the province logged 1,873 new cases of the virus and 17 more deaths, a notable decline in fatalities compared to the second wave high of 45 deaths recorded yesterday.
Today marks the fourth day in a row that the province recorded more than 1,800 new cases of the virus.
The province logged 1,848 new infections on Friday and a record 1,983 on Thursday.
Provincial health officials processed 65,260 tests in the last 24-hour period, breaking Friday’s record of 63,051 tests.
There are currently 67,654 tests under investigation.
Despite the rise in testing, the province’s positivity rate remains unchanged at 3.2 per cent, according to provincial health officials.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in the province now stands at 1,874 compared to 1,763 a week ago.
Most cases continue to be in the Greater Toronto Area.
"Locally, there are 522 new cases in Toronto, 436 in Peel, 185 in York Region and 109 in Hamilton. There are 1,918 more resolved cases," Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted.
Toronto, Peel and Hamilton all saw day-over-day increases in new cases on Saturday, while York and Windsor-Essex both reported a decrease in new infections compared to a day ago.
The provincial government announced on Friday that both York and Windsor-Essex will be going into the grey “lockdown” level of the province’s COVID-19 response framework on Monday to curb the spread of the virus.
Toronto and Peel Region entered a lockdown on Nov. 23 for at least 28 days.
Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region logged 80 new cases, down from 91 on Friday, while Halton recorded 47 new infections, a decrease of 10 from a day ago.
Meanwhile, Ottawa saw a notable decrease with 19 new cases compared to 59 on Friday.
The Ottawa Hospital, along with The University Health Network in Toronto, are the first two sites in the province to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines which are set to be administered to healthcare professionals on Tuesday.
As cases continue to rise in the province, fatalities are also climbing and nearing the 4,000-mark. Ontario’s death toll now stands at 3,933.
Of those fatalities, nine were long-term care home residents, down from the 29 deaths recorded in those settings a day ago.
There are currently 128 active outbreaks of the virus at long-term care homes across the province, relatively unchanged from yesterday.
In Ontario, there are 16,221 active cases of COVID-19, compared to 16,283 on Friday.
To date, there have been more than 138,500 cases of the novel coronavirus in the province since January and 118,350 recoveries.
Hospitalizations continue to rise amid a second wave of the virus in Ontario.
There are currently 855 people being treated for the virus in Ontario hospitals, up from 808 a day ago. Of those hospitalizations, 237 are currently in intensive care units and 143 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
