The province continues to report declining numbers of new COVID-19 infections with 181 cases detected on Monday, the lowest since March 28.

Ontario reported 197 cases on Sunday, 266 on Saturday, and 182 on Friday.

The number of centrally-confirmed deaths in Ontario rose by 8 to 2,527.

Monday’s report means a total of 32,370 cases of the novel coronavirus have been lab-confirmed in Ontario since the outbreak began, including 2,527 deaths, 27,213 recovered cases and 2,630 remaining active infections.

Of the 181 new cases, 85 were from Toronto and 41 were from Peel Region, representing about 70 per cent of the total.

Epidemiologist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said Ontario’s recent case growth, along with rising testing rates and falling hospital capacity suggests the province is on solid ground.

“All the arrows are heading in the right direction, there’s great capacity for testing, there’s a decrease in the number of new cases per day, including in the GTA, of all the tests that are done the percentage of positive cases found is very small, there’s decent hospital capacity and ICU capacity, I mean, this is just check, check, check, all is well or at least headed in the right direction,” he told CP24.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said Monday that 28 of Ontario’s 34 local public health units reported five or fewer new cases each on Monday.

Ontario’s lab network turned around 21,751 tests on Monday, with a further 18,000 specimens under investigation.

Premier Doug Ford said Monday that the province has now completed more than one million COVID-19 PCR tests since the outbreak began.

Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario Dr. Barbara Yaffe said there are many factors that have helped the province get its COVID-19 caseload under control, but testing was definitely a core factor.

Meanwhile, Ontario’s hospitals continue to slowly empty themselves of patients suffering from severe COVID-19 symptoms.

There were 419 people admitted to Ontario hospitals for COVID-19 on Monday, down 19 from Sunday.

Of those, 104 were in intensive care units across the province, up one from Sunday.

Sixty-nine people were breathing with the help of a ventilator on Monday, down from 77 on Sunday.

Later on Monday, Ontario officials including Premier Doug Ford will speak about which of the nine public health regions still waiting to move to Stage 2 of the province’s reopening plan will be given the green light.