Ontario is reporting more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 for a third consecutive day, as total cases surpassed 200,000 since the virus first emerged almost a year ago.

The province reported 3,266 new infections of COVID-19 on Wednesday, up from the 3,128 cases logged a day ago.

Ontario recorded 3,270 on Monday, 2,964 on Sunday and a single-day record of 3,363 cases on Saturday.

The province has reported more than 3,000 new daily cases in five of the past seven days.

The seven-day rolling average now stands at 3,113, compared to 2,309 a week ago.

Most of the new cases continue to be in hot spots throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

“Locally, there are 805 new cases in Toronto, 523 in Peel, 349 in York Region, 208 in Windsor-Essex County and 206 in Waterloo,” Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted.

Elsewhere in the GTA, Halton Region recorded 100 new cases on Wednesday, while Durham Region logged 145 cases.

Provincial health officials also recorded 37 more deaths on Wednesday, down from 51 on Tuesday.

Of those deaths, one was among a health-care worker from Mississauga, while 20 were among long-term care home residents.

Currently, there are 220 long-term care homes with an active outbreak of the virus, representing more than one third of all long-term care homes in Ontario.

Provincial health officials said 51,045 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, up by more than 15,800 tests from Tuesday.

The province’s positivity rate dropped to 8.5 per cent compared to 9.4 cent a day ago, likely due to a rise in testing.

On Wednesday, the province surpassed 200,000 lab-confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus since the first case emerged almost a year ago.

To date,169,695 people have recovered from the virus in Ontario and 4,767 people have died.

Hospitalizations near 1,500

COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to increase across the province nearing almost 1,500.

According to the latest figures released by the province, there are 1,463 people currently hospitalized with the virus, up from 1,347 on Tuesday.

Ontario Hospital Association President and CEO Anthony Dale said 25 new COVID-19 patients were admitted to intensive care units across the province on Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 patients currently in ICUs is 374, according to Dale.

The Ministry of Health, however, said on Wednesday that only 361 people are in ICU with the virus, and that 246 of those ICU patients are breathing with the help of a ventilator.

The Ontario government has indicated that provincial numbers often lag those reported by individual hospitals and local public health units.

Province surpasses 60,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine

As of 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the province had administered 60,380 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

More than 10,300 people received shots in the past 24 hours and a total of 860 vaccinations have been completed so far. The vaccines require two doses about three weeks apart for full immunization.

On Tuesday, the government announced that it aims to inoculate all long-term care residents, staff and essential workers in Toronto, Peel Region, York Region and Windsor-Essex County by Jan. 21, as these regions are among the hardest hit across the province.

Infectious Diseases Specialist Issac Bogoch said inoculations should be happening at a faster rate.

“I would up the ante," Bogoch told CP24 on Wednesday. “There already is evidence that it can be done fast as we’ve seen with Michael Garron Hospital as it will have vaccinated by today 12 long-term care facilities and this program just started a minute ago basically. So this can be done very quickly with the teams involved and it’s wonderful to hear the outpouring support."