Ontario is reporting fewer than 300 new COVID-19 cases for the first time since mid-September.

Provincial health officials logged 296 new COVID-19 cases today, down from 447 on Monday and 530 on Sunday.

It is the lowest single-day total reported since Sept. 17 when 293 new cases were confirmed in the province.

The rolling seven-day average of new infections now stands at 479 in Ontario, down from 703 just one week ago.

With 17,162 tests processed over the past 24 hours, the provincewide positivity rate today is 2.3 per cent, according to the Ministry of Health.

Ontario's active caseload is now 5,012, down from 7,378 last week.

Another 13 virus-related deaths were confirmed today. Two of the dead were residents in the long-term care system.

The number of patients infected with COVID-19 at Ontario hospitals is 433 today, up slightly from 384 on Monday. It should be noted that hospitalization data released on Monday is often lower than the true total due to a lack of reporting.

According to the province, intensive care admissions dropped below 400 today for the first time since late March.

The Ministry of Health says there are currently 382 COVID-19 patients in the ICU at Ontario hospitals, including approximately 25 patients from Manitoba.

Of the new cases today, 62 are in Peel Region, 60 are in Toronto, 45 are in Waterloo, 15 are in York Region and 13 are in Halton Region.

It is the lowest single-day total reported in Toronto since Sept. 10.

The encouraging new data comes as Toronto hit a vaccination milestone on Monday night. The city says about 20 per cent of all Toronto residents are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

On Monday, the province opened up second-dose eligibility to everyone in Delta variant hot spots who received their first dose of an mRNA vaccine before May 9.

The province also recently announced that those who received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be eligible to book their second dose at an interval of eight weeks and will be able to receive a second dose of an mRNA vaccine.

Ontario has administered 11,529,430 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to date, including 184,989 doses that were administered yesterday alone. More than two million people in the province are now fully immunized after receiving two doses of a vaccine.

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.