Ontario is reporting 118 new COVID-19 infections and one new death on Thursday, a day after the province reported a daily increase of less than 100 cases for the first time in nearly a week.

The province reported 88 cases on Wednesday, 100 on Tuesday, 105 on Monday and 115 on Sunday.

It's the highest daily case growth since Aug. 20 when 131 cases were reported.

"Locally, 28 of Ontario’s 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 18 reporting no new cases," Health Minister Christine Elliott wrote on Twitter.

But Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Williams said there are no signs the province is on a long-term path to increased infection, and instead reiterated comments from his federal counterpart Dr. Theresa Tam that the nation is in a "slow burn" of infection at the moment.

"We're not jumping up to 200 or 300 (cases), that's what I don’t want to see," he said.

Seventy-seven people recovered from their infections in the past 24 hours, leading to a net increase in active cases in Ontario of 40.

There are now 1,070 active cases of novel coronavirus infection in the province, up from about earlier in the month.

There have been 41,813 lab-confirmed cases of infection since Jan. 25, along with 2,803 death and 37,940 recoveries.

"We've seen less than five deaths a week for four weeks in a row – while that is good news, we would rather want to see no deaths at all," Williams said.

Sixty-eight per cent of cases detected in the past 24 hours occurred in people aged 39 or younger.

Toronto reported 36 new infections, Peel Region reported 19, Ottawa reported 22 new cases and Durham Region reported 10.

When asked about sustained case growth in Toronto as well as Ottawa, Williams said any future

increase in lockdown measures would be targeted at specific regions.

He suggested there would likely be no future need for a province-wide lockdown like what was seen in March and April.

"We didn't have the luxury of good case contact management, we had an influx of (foreign asymptomatic) cases that we didn't even know," Williams said of the situation in March.

He said future measures targeting a possible second wave would be a "variation" of what occurred this spring, possibly only targeting a few of Ontario's 34 local public health units.

Provincial labs processed 28,600 tests in the past 24 hours, up from roughly 22,000 processed one day earlier.

Another 26,000 test specimens remain under investigation.

The positivity rate generated by Thursday's results is 0.41 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 symptoms continues a slow climb.

There are now 48 people in hospitals across Ontario receiving treatment, up from at least 43 on Wednesday.

Of those, 18 people are in intensive care units, up from 15 on Wednesday.

Ten people are breathing with the help of a ventilator, unchanged from Wednesday.