Ontario reported 164 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths in the past 24 hours, keeping numbers well above the average of the past several weeks, driven in part by renewed case growth in Windsor-Essex and the GTA.
Ontario reported 166 cases on Saturday and 111 on Friday.
The province had been reporting less than 150 new cases per day on average for the past several weeks.
“Locally, 28 of Ontario’s 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 15 of them reporting no new cases at all. 37 of today’s cases are from Windsor-Essex with 48 from the Peel Region,” Health Minister Christine Elliott said.
She said provincial labs turned around 27,000 test specimens in the past 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of about 0.6 per cent.
Eighteen thousand specimens remained under investigation on Sunday.
New case growth outstripped recoveries by 48 cases, meaning there are now 1,446 remaining active cases in the province.
Ontario has now had 37,604 lab-confirmed cases of the virus and 2,751 deaths since the outbreak reached the province in late January.
Toronto reported 25 new cases, York Region reported six cases, Ottawa reported 16 cases and Niagara reported 9 new cases.
Hospital occupancy due to the virus continues to slowly decline.
There were 101 patients being treated for COVID-19 symptoms across Ontario on Sunday.
Of those, 34 were in intensive care.
Twenty-three people were breathing with the help of a ventilator.
