Ontario reported 20 net new COVID-19 deaths on Friday, as hospitalizations fell slightly from their sixth wave highs earlier in the week.

The Ministry of Health says 19 of the new deaths occurred in the past 30 days and one other occurred prior to that.

There have been 132 deaths reported in the past seven days and 405 reported in the past 30 days.

Ontario’s overall confirmed death toll due to COVID-19 now stands at 12,812.

Two of the deaths reported on Friday involved residents of long-term care.

There were 1,679 patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 on Friday, up 18 from Thursday but down about 50 from earlier in the week.

Of those, 209 patients were in intensive care, up seven from yesterday.

Ninety-four patients were breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Hospitalizations are up 5.5 per cent from this time last week and 17.6 per cent from this point two weeks ago.

The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, citing wastewater data, says virus spread is increasing in every region of Ontario except the southwest and eastern Ontario including Ottawa.

Of the 2,760 cases detected through PCR tests in Ontario in the past 24 hours, 268 involved unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people, 544 involved people with two doses of vaccine, 1,775 involved people with three doses of vaccine and 173 involved people whose vaccination status is not known.

Provincial labs processed 19,235 test specimens in the previous period, generating a positivity rate of 13.2 per cent.

Positivity among groups eligible for free testing has declined recently, from an average of 18.1 per cent last week to 15 per cent this week.

The Ministry of Health says 33,077 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered on Thursday.

Of those, 1,390 were first doses, 1,604 were second doses, 4,246 were third doses and 25,837 were fourth doses.

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.