Ontario reported more than 2,300 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and 26 additional deaths, as the seven-day rolling average of infections continues to drop.

Provincial health officials logged 2,362 new coronavirus infections today, down from 2,759 on Thursday.

The latest numbers continue a downward trend with the seven-day rolling average of new cases now at 2,616, a notable decline from 3,266 seven days ago.

Another 3,502 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 28,069 active cases in the province.

Ontario’s virus-related death toll now stands at 8,431.

More than 2,600 lab-confirmed COVID-19 variants of concern were identified in Ontario on Thursday, with most being the dominant B.1.1.7 variant.

Of the latest cases, 691 were reported in Toronto, while 563 were logged in Peel Region, 224 in York Region, 148 in Durham Region and 63 in Halton Region.

More than 44,000 tests were processed yesterday, down from 47,638 tests the previous day.

The drop in testing contributed to a rise in the province’s positivity rate to 6.1 per cent, compared to 5.7 per cent on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Health. The positivity rate, however, is down from a week ago when it was seven per cent.

Hospitalizations continue to decline slowly, with 1,582 COVID-19 patients currently receiving treatment in hospital, down by 50 from Thursday.

However, the number of patients in intensive care continue to remain relatively unchanged over the past few days. A total of 777 people are in ICUs, up by one from a day ago, and 560 of these patients were breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Today’s numbers come after Premier Doug Ford announced on Thursday that the provincewide stay-at-home order has been extended until at least June 2. The order was first implemented on Apr. 8 in an effort to drive down COVID-19 transmission.

To date, more than 504,500 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 468,033 recoveries have been identified in the province since the first case emerged in Jan 2020.

 

As of Thursday evening, more than 6.7 million doses of vaccine have been administered across the province, with over 141,700 shots into arms yesterday alone.

Since vaccinations began in mid-December, more than 415,500 people have been fully vaccinated in Ontario. Two doses of vaccine currently administered in the province are needed for full immunization.

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.