Ontario reported 573 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday along with 10 additional deaths, as the province’s hospital burden continued a slow decline and active cases fell to a fresh multi-month low.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases continues to drop, now standing at 551, down from 565 yesterday and 597 one week ago.

The province reported 587 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and 476 on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Health says 333 of Friday’s cases involve unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people, 192 involve fully vaccinated people and 48 cases involve people with unknown vaccination status.

Unvaccinated people and those with only one dose make up 28 per cent of Ontario’s population but 58 per cent of Friday’s caseload.

There are now 4,517 known active cases of COVID-19 across Ontario, the smallest burden of infection the province has seen since Aug. 20.

There have been 9,786 deaths due to COVID-19 since March 2020, along with 576,374 recoveries.

Two of Friday’s deaths involved residents of the long-term care system.

Provincial labs again processed about 37,000 test specimens in the previous 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of at least 1.7 per cent once duplicate and inconclusive tests are removed.

The Ministry of Health says there are 271 people with COVID-19 in acute care and ICU hospital beds across the province, a decline of seven patients from one week ago.

There are now 154 people in intensive care, nine fewer than one week ago.

Of Friday’s ICU patients, 97 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Last week the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table estimated the effective reproduction number in the province at 0.96, meaning every 100 new cases would infect 96 further people, suggesting a long-term decline in the number of active cases.

Yesterday, the province released COVID-19 guidance on Thanksgiving gatherings and Halloween, advising Ontario residents to avoid gatherings if sick, keep surfaces sanitized and consider outdoor gatherings if unvaccinated guests are present.

Now nearly 10 months into the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in Ontario, they continue to demonstrate significant ability in reducing infections and severe outcomes from the novel coronavirus.

The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table estimates vaccination reduces relative risk of infection by 85 per cent, hospital admission by 95 per cent and ICU admission by 98 per cent.

Across the GTA, Toronto reported 104 new cases, Peel Region reported 80 new cases, York Region reported 41 new cases and Durham reported 20 new cases.

Hamilton reported 15 new cases and Halton Region reported 19 new cases.

The province says it administered 30,575 doses of COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, including what it believes to be the 22 millionth dose.

It says 11,298 first doses were administered and 19,277 second 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.