Ontario health officials reported 308 new COVID-19 cases and 35 new deaths on Monday, continuing a falling trend where recoveries now exceed new infections and the number of deaths continues to decline.

The total case count now includes 1,669 deaths, 15,131 recoveries and 3,746 remaining active cases, bringing Ontario’s total to 20,546.

Monday’s case count was just slightly higher than Sunday’s count of 294 cases, the lowest recorded in more than six weeks.

Epidemiologist Dr. Isaac Bogoch said the latest case numbers are encouraging, even if they zig-zag up and down a bit as part of a broader decline.

“When you take a step back and look at trends over time, it makes a lot of sense. We saw a rapid rise in cases and then we saw a plateau and now we’re coming down a little bit,” Bogoch told CP24 on Monday.

“If you look at it week-by-week instead of day-by-day, you can see these general trends. At our peak we were seeing 500 to 600 cases per day and now we’re in the 300-400 cases per day range.”

Premier Doug Ford said the province has many reasons to be optimistic.

"Please remember we’re looking for a trend and these numbers are a good sign we are moving in the right direction."

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams said Monday’s number continues a recent downward decline.

“That is also encouraging as we look at our downward trending – this continues to move us in the ongoing downward trend.”

A count of deaths from data disclosed by Ontario's 34 local public health units found 1,756 deaths as of Monday afternoon.

The discrepancy can be explained by a lag in reporting of data.

The number of recovered cases increased by 359 in the last 24 hours, exceeding the number of new infections by 51.

Of the 1,669 confirmed deaths, all but 78 have occurred in people 60 or older, with 1,174 deaths in people aged 80 or older.

A total of 1,398 deaths occurred in long-term care or retirement home residents.

Infections of people living in the long-term care system is the main driver behind continued deaths due to novel coronavirus infection in the province, with 245 homes having reported an outbreak since March.

More than 60 per cent of all lab confirmed cases are in the GTA, with Toronto having the highest rate of infection per 100,000 residents with 217 cases per 100,000.

Provincial labs completed 13,970 tests in the last day, down from 17,618 on Sunday.

A further 9,000 specimens were under investigation.

The number of people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 shot back up over 1,000 on Monday, with 1,027 admitted, up from 961 on Sunday.

The number of people in intensive care fell by one to 194, while the number of people breathing with the help of a ventilator rose by seven to 147.

Williams said there have been no reports yet of children requiring ICU admission or intubation, but some children have been admitted to Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital for COVID-19 treatment.

Deaths reported by Ontario's public health units:

Algoma Public Health – 0

Brant County Health Unit – 3

Chatham-Kent Public Health – 1

Durham Region Health Department – 149

Eastern Ontario Health Unit – 8

Grey Bruce Health Unit – 0

Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit – 30

Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit – 32

Halton Region Health Department – 23

City of Hamilton Public Health Services – 24

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health Services – 5

Huron Perth Public Health – 5

Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health – 0

Lambton Public Health – 17

Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit – 46

Middlesex-London Health Unit – 43

Niagara Region Public Health – 37

North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit – 0

Northwestern Health Unit – 0

Ottawa Public Health – 171

Peel Public Health – 204

Peterborough Public Health – 2

Porcupine Health Unit – 5

Public Health Sudbury & Districts – 2

Renfrew County & District Health Unit – 1

Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit – 29

Southwestern Public Health – 4

Thunder Bay District Health Unit – 1

Timiskaming Health Unit – 0

Toronto Public Health – 589

Region of Waterloo Public Health – 103

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health – 30

Windsor-Essex County Health Unit – 59

York Region Public Health – 132