Ontario is reporting fewer than 500 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths on Friday as the province released vaccine certificate QR codes that residents can use as proof of vaccination at non-essential businesses.

The province logged 496 new infections today, up from 417 on Thursday but down from 573 a week ago.

Among the latest cases, 280 of the individuals are unvaccinated, 20 are partially vaccinated, 162 are fully vaccinated and 34 have an unknown vaccination status.

So far, 87 per cent of eligible Ontarians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and over 82 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

Ontario reported 306 new cases on Wednesday, 390 on Tuesday and 458 on Monday.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 465, down from 551 a week ago.

Another 542 people recovered from the disease in the past 24 hours, resulting in 3,974 active cases across the province, compared to 4,517 active cases a week ago.

The province’s virus-related death toll now stands at 9,809.

Ontario labs processed more than 35,900 tests in the past 24 hours, producing a positivity rate of 1.4 per cent, down from 1.8 per cent a week ago, according to the Ministry of Health.

Toronto reported 74 new cases today, while 60 new infections were logged in Peel Region, 28 in York Region, 15 in Durham and 10 in Halton.

Elsewhere in Southern Ontario, 40 cases were logged in both Ottawa and Windsor and 24 in Hamilton.

The ministry says there are 265 patients with the virus in Ontario hospitals and 163 are in intensive care units.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 148 are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 15 are fully vaccinated.

To date, there have been 593,933 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases and 580,150 recoveries since Jan. 2020.

The latest numbers come as the province started to release vaccine certificate QR codes today that residents can use as proof of vaccination at non-essential businesses, including gyms, cinemas and restaurants.

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.