Ontario reported nearly 600 new COVID-19 cases and seven more deaths on Wednesday as the seven-day rolling average of new infections continued to rise.

Provincial health officials logged 591 new coronavirus infections today, down from 613 on Tuesday but up from 512 a week ago.

The province reported 728 new cases on Saturday, 741 on Sunday and 627 on Monday.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 686, a notable jump from 587 a week ago.

Among the latest cases, 293 of the individuals are unvaccinated, 14 are partially vaccinated, 237 are fully vaccinated and 47 have an unknown vaccination status.

To date, 89 per cent of Ontarians 12 years and older have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 86 per cent have received two doses and are considered fully vaccinated.

This week, Pfizer’s vaccine for children aged five to 11 will start being administered across the province after being approved last week.

Yesterday, a small group of young children in Toronto already received their first shot.

The province reported 170 new cases in publicly funded schools across Ontario today and 15 schools are closed due to outbreaks.

Another 664 people recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours, resulting in 5,407 active cases across the province.

The seven deaths reported today occurred in the last month and the province’s virus-related death toll stands at 9,981, according to the Ministry of Health.

Ontario labs processed nearly 30,100 tests yesterday, producing a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent, unchanged from a week ago, the ministry says.

The public health units that reported the most new infections today include Toronto (74), Windsor-Essex (63), Simcoe Muskoka (60), York Region (48) and Peel Region (43).

There are currently 289 people with the virus in Ontario hospitals and 137 in intensive care units.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says 123 of ICU patients are not fully vaccinated or have an unknown vaccination status and 14 are fully vaccinated.

Seven of the ICU patients receiving care in Ontario are transfers from Saskatchewan.

To date, there have been 613,522 lab-confirmed cases and 598,134 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.