Ontario is reporting 2,005 new COVID-19 cases and 18 new deaths on Sunday, a third straight day of declines after marking a record high earlier in the week.
“Locally, there are 572 new cases in Toronto, 331 in Peel, 207 in York Region and 140 in Windsor-Essex County," Health Minister Christine Elliott wrote on Twitter.
Ontario reported 2,142 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and 2,159 on Friday. Ontario set a single-day record for cases on Thursday with 2,447.
Testing data from Dec. 25 to today showed that provincial labs processed 61,465 specimens on Dec. 25, 49,511 on Dec. 26 and 41,783 today.
As a result, the positivity rate climbed from 3.4 per cent on Dec. 25 to 5.1 per cent today.
Sunday’s positivity rate was the highest Ontario’s has been in two weeks.
There have now been 171,416 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario this year, with 4,377 deaths and 147,178 recoveries.
Fourteen of the 18 deaths reported on Sunday involved residents of long-term care homes.
There are 19,861 active cases of novel coronavirus infection in Ontario, down 18 from Saturday.
Yesterday, officials announced the discovery of two cases of the coronavirus mutation first discovered in Britain, B.1.1.7, in two people living in Durham Region.
They had no travel history to Britain, suggesting the more transmissible strain of the virus is circulating to some degree in Ontario.
Meanwhile, the number of Ontarians needing care in hospital ICUs held relatively steady.
Sunday’s report from Critical Care Services Ontario showed 303 adults and one newborn baby in intensive care due to COVID-19, down one adult from Saturday.
A count of data from local public health units and hospital network showed a total of 1,036 people hospitalized across the province due to COVID-19 on Sunday.
Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region reported 71 new cases, Halton Region reported 80 new cases and Hamilton reported 74 new cases.
