Ontario is reporting another 998 new cases of COVID-19, pushing its rolling seven-day average closer to the 1,000 threshold.

The total is up from the 936 cases reported last Wednesday.

Ontario’s seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 981.5. That represents a nine per cent increase from this point last week when the seven-day average stood at 899.

The Ministry of Health is also reporting an additional 13 deaths in COVID-19 patients over the last 24 hours, including seven long-term care residents. That number is down from the recent high of 16 deaths reported on Wednesday but still pushes Ontario’s seven-day average up to eleven.

As recently as Aug. 17, Ontario’ seven-day average of new deaths was under one (0.42) but the indicator has slowly but steadily risen since then.

The latest cases come as the province’s labs turned around 35,754 tests on Wednesday. That is far off Ontario’s capacity of 50,000 tests a day but nonetheless represents the highest that number has been this week.

It also points to the points to the lowest positivity rate seen so far this week at 3.3 per cent.

Of the new cases reported on Thursday more than three-quarters are located in the Greater Toronto Area, including 350 in Toronto, 269 in Peel, 71 in York Region, 47 in Halton Region and 33 in Durham Region.

There was also another 45 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ottawa, where lab-confirmed infections continue to decline after surging last month.

When you adjust for population, Peel Region remains the hot spot with an average of 98.5 infections per 100,000 residents over the last week. Toronto had 74.4 new infections per capita over the last week and York had 56.6. Peel’s number, it should be noted, is precariously close to the benchmark that the Ford government has included among its indicators for moving regions into the red “control” category in its new colour-coded system for COVID-19 restrictions, which is 100 weekly infections per 100,000 residents.

Premier Doug Ford, however, has said that Peel will nonetheless be moved into the orange category as of Saturday, allowing bars, restaurants, gyms and movie theatres to reopen with additional restrictions.

“We are just trying to get back to as normal as we can,” Ford said earlier this week as he unveiled the new colour-coded system.

Growth in new cases has slowed but not stopped

The increase in new infections has slowed considerably since the beginning of October when case counts were doubling every 10 to 12 days.

The situation in Ontario, however, remains precarious with the seven-day average of new cases higher than it has ever been.

Hospitalizations also continue to rend upwards.

On Thursday, the ministry said that there were 381 COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals, 86 of which were receiving treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICU).

That is up from the 367 patients that were receiving care in Ontario hospitals one day prior, including 75 in the ICU.