For the second consecutive day, Ontario has set a new record for the number of new COVID-19 infections reported over a 24-hour period.

Provincial health officials are reporting 1,924 new COVID-19 cases today, topping the record high 1,859 new cases confirmed one day earlier.

With more than 59,000 tests completed over the past day, the province is reporting a provincewide positivity rate of 3.9 per cent, up slightly from 3.7 last week.

The rolling seven-day average of new cases now stands at 1,794, up from 1,548 one week ago.

Of the new cases reported today, 568 are in Toronto, 477 are in Peel Region, and 249 are in York Region.

Fifteen more virus-related deaths were reported today, including eight residents of long-term care homes.

Seven more outbreaks of the virus have been reported in long-term care homes over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of outbreaks in those facilities to 115.

There are now at least 701 patients with COVID-19 receiving treatment at Ontario hospitals, 100 more than the number of hospitalized patients at this point last week.

The province says 204 of those patients are in intensive care.

The province is reporting 1,574 more recoveries today, pushing the number of active cases up to 15,547.

Monday marks two weeks since Toronto and Peel Region entered a provincially mandated 28-day lockdown period.

Restaurants and bars are only permitted to offer takeout and delivery and all non-essential stores can only offer delivery and curbside pickup.

Speaking to CP24 on Sunday morning, Mayor John Tory said people need to "stay the course" and continue to adhere to the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"Nobody said from Day 1 of this lockdown, or any of the other restrictions that have been put in place for public health reasons, that it was going to be easy," Tory said.

"I think we've seen this in other parts of the world that you have to stay the course, that eventually when you restrict the number of contacts people have with one another, when you have people following the rules and staying home basically and not associating with people they don't live with, you do see an improvement."

York Region's top doctor unconvinced lockdown will help

York Region, which has seen new cases climb over the past week, remains in the red or "control" zone of the province's reopening framework and speaking to CP24 on Sunday, Dr. Karim Kurji, the region's medical officer of health, said he remains unconvinced that a full lockdown is needed in York Region.

"Our modelling studies already show that going into the lockdown zone is not necessarily going to be benefiting us much in terms of any real gains. Our cases aren't asiring from the retail establishments nor are they arising from the restaurant or gyms," he said. 

"So we are not necessarily too convinced that going into the lockdown zone would necessarily help bring the cases down."

He added that while York Region hospitals are "increasingly being challenged," the situation isn't as dire as it is in Toronto or Peel Region.

"Our hospitals are getting scratched, they are getting increasingly challenged, but I'm not hearing the sort of crisis calls that you are hearing from say Brampton hospitals or from Scarborough hospitals when Toronto went into a lockdown," he said. 

Kurji said when it comes to case and contact management, the region is doing "quite well," reaching almost all new confirmed cases within 24 hours.

"We continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and we will be in touch with the chief medical officer of health, transmitting our information to him on Tuesday," he said. 

"There may be some discussions that may occur and we will defer to the province's decision on this but we will give our input. And at this point in time, I'm not convinced that going into a lockdown will necessarily reduce the numbers to any great extent."

New cases in the GTHA:

Toronto: 568

Peel Region: 477

York Region: 249

Durham Region: 104

Halton Region: 51

Hamilton: 87