Ontario reported 1,299 new COVID-19 cases and 15 more deaths on Sunday, the highest count of cases since mid-February when parts of the province began to exit the stay-at-home order.

Across the GTA, Toronto reported 329 new cases, Peel Region reported 192 new cases and York Region reported 116 new cases, with each region posting increases from Saturday.

Provincial labs processed 46,586 tests in the past 24 hours, generating a positivity rate of at least 3.1 per cent.

One of the 15 people who died was a resident of a long-term care home, Public Health Ontario said.

Ontario reported 990 new cases on Saturday and 1,250 on Friday, as well as 994 on Thursday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 1,069, up from 1,052 on Saturday.

It’s the highest number of cases reported since Feb. 13, when the province reported 1,300 new cases.

The first public health regions of Ontario were allowed to exit the stay-at-home order three days later.

There are now 10,389 active cases of novel coronavirus infection around the province, with 7,067 known deaths and 290,840 recoveries.

Hospitalizations continue to fall slightly, with 606 people in hospital on Sunday, down from 620 on Saturday.

Of those, 273 were in intensive care and 179 were breathing with the help of a ventilator.

Public Health Ontario said it confirmed an additional seven cases involving variants of concern, including two new cases of the B.1.1.7 variant and five new cases of the P.1 variant.

There are still between two and three thousand additional samples that have screened positive for a variant of concern but are awaiting confirmation through whole genomic sequencing, according to local public health units.

The province says it administered an additional 30,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Saturday, bringing the total to 890,604.

Almost 272,000 people have completed their full two-dose inoculation.

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.