Ontario reported more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases and eight more deaths today, along with a record number of patients battling the disease in intensive care units across the province.

Provincial health officials logged 3,065 new infections, up from 2,938 on Monday.

Ontario reported 3,041 new cases on Sunday, 3,009 on Saturday and 3,089 on Friday.

The province’s seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 2,862, compared to 2,207 a week ago.

Of the latest fatalities, one person was between 40 and 59 years old, four people were between 60 and 79 and three were 80 or older. No new fatalities were reported among long-term care home residents.

Today's fatalities mark the lowest reported since Mar. 22 when three people died with the virus. The province’s virus-related death toll is now 7,458.

Another 1,976 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 26,568 active cases across the province.

Provincial health officials also reported 33 more lab-confirmed cases of highly-contagious variants of concern, including 30 of the dominant B.1.1.7 variant and three of the P.1 variant.

Another 1,068 cases that have screened positive for a variant are awaiting whole genome sequencing to identify their lineage, with a total of 27,193 cases pending confirmation of what variant they are.

Ontario labs processed more than 37,500 tests in the past 24 hours, and another 29,173 tests are under investigation.

The province’s positivity rate rose to a staggering 8.9 per cent today, compared to 7.8 per cent a day ago, according to the Ministry of Health.

It’s the highest positivity rate Ontario has seen in three months.

In the Greater Toronto Area, Toronto logged 955 new infections, up from 906 on Monday, while 561 cases were recorded in Peel Region, 320 in York, 119 in Halton and 101 in Durham.

Meanwhile, 128 new cases were reported in Hamilton, 132 in Niagara and 165 in Ottawa.

Of Ontario’s 34 public health units, 15 logged 30 or more new cases today.

The number of patients fighting the disease in hospitals continues to creep upwards as the province is in its first week of a month-long shutdown to curb rising cases and hospitalizations.

The Ministry of Health says there are currently 1,161 patients hospitalized across the province due to the virus, up from 942 a day ago.

However, according to data from public health units there are at least 1,364 patients in Ontario hospitals due to the virus.

Of those hospitalized, the ministry says a record 510 are in intensive care units, up by 16 from Monday, and 310 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.

The head of ICU at Michael Garron Hospital, Dr. Michael Warner, told CP24 that the variants are driving up the number of cases in hospitals.

"The variant is a completely different disease, completely different from classic COVID. The variant will run the table in a household. Almost everyone will get infected. We didn't see that in wave one," he said.

To date, there have been just over 367,600 cases of the coronavirus and 333,576 recoveries since the first case emerged in the province last January.

More than 323,148 people have been fully vaccinated against the disease in Ontario since mid-December. Of the vaccines that are currently being administered across the province, two doses are needed up to four months apart for full immunization.

As of Monday evening, over 2.6 million doses have been administered to Ontarians, with 76,199 yesterday alone.

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.