Ontario reported 184 new COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths on Wednesday, the lowest overall count of cases since Sept. 10, 2020, as hair salons and shopping malls opened across the province for the first time in months.

The seven-day-rolling average of new cases fell to 268, down from 283 on Tuesday.

The province reported 299 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and 210 on Monday.

Provincial labs processed 27,258 tests in the past 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of at least one per cent.

There are now 2,257 known active cases of novel coronavirus infection in Ontario, with 9,168 confirmed deaths and 533,472 recoveries.

Across the GTA, Toronto reported 17 new cases, Peel reported 16, York reported five and Halton reported one.

Durham Region reported five new cases and Hamilton reported 17.

Ontario hospitals said Wednesday they are treating 268 patients in intensive care, down from 295 one week ago.

Of those, 181 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.

A count of data from local public health units and hospital networks found at least 445 people receiving acute and intensive care treatment for COVID-19 in hospitals across the province on Wednesday.

Wednesday also saw personal care services such as hair salons and shopping malls reopen to customers for the first time in months across the province.

The next stage of reopening slated for July 21 will allow indoor dining, movie theatres and other indoor activities to resume.

The province’s new Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore told reporters on Tuesday he will likely maintain the 21-day interval between Step 2 and Step 3, given the threat posed by the Delta B.1.617+ variant.

Provincial labs confirmed another 205 examples of the Delta coronavirus variant on Wednesday, bringing the total detected through whole genomic sequencing to 1,909 since April.  

Officials say more than 268,397 doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines were administered on Tuesday, bringing the total number of doses administered in the province to 14,741,138.

More than 4.8 million people have received two doses of vaccine.

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.