Ontario reported nearly 500 new COVID-19 cases and one more death on Tuesday as the seven-day rolling average continued its upward trend.

Provincial health officials logged 481 new infections today, down from 552 yesterday and up from 441 a week ago.

The province reported 666 new cases on Sunday, 661 on Saturday and 598 on Friday.

For the past couple of weeks, the seven-day rolling average of new cases has been gradually rising and hit 579 today, up from 492 a week ago.

Among the latest cases, 236 of the individuals are unvaccinated, 18 are partially vaccinated, 189 are fully vaccinated and 38 have an unknown vaccination status.

To date, 88 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 85 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

Children under 12 years old are not yet eligible for a vaccine.

Over the last three days, a total of 245 COVID-19 cases were reported in publicly-funded schools across the province, a significant climb from 181 school cases reported a week ago.

Another 651 people recovered from the virus yesterday, resulting in 4,814 active cases across the province.

The latest death reported today occurred in the last month, according to the Ministry of Health.

The province’s virus-related death toll stands at 9,938.

Ontario labs processed nearly 19,000 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent, down from 3.1 per cent this time a week ago, the ministry says.

In the Greater Toronto Area, 56 new infections were logged in Toronto, 31 in Peel Region, 23 in York, 17 in Durham and 12 in Halton.

Elsewhere in the province, 41 cases were reported in Ottawa, 33 in Simcoe Muskoka, and 29 in Sudbury and surrounding districts.

There are 301 people with the virus in hospitals across the province, a notable increase from 138 on Monday, according to the ministry.

Today marks the highest number of hospitalized patients since September 30 when 315 people were in Ontario hospitals.

There are currently 139 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care units and 82 of those individuals are breathing with the help of a ventilator, the ministry says.

Twelve of Ontario’s current COVID-19 ICU patients were transferred here from Saskatchewan.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 120 ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 19 are fully vaccinated.

To date, there have been 608,206 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 593,454 recoveries since Jan. 2020.

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.