Ontario reported 977 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, as nine new deaths were recorded for the third straight day.
The daily case count recorded over the past 24 hours marked the fourth-highest daily tally recorded in the province since the pandemic began.
Sunday’s numbers showed 350 people in the province are being treated in hospital with 72 of them in intensive care and 46 on ventilators.
Of the 350 hospitalizations, 30 came in the last day.
The bulk of the new cases remained concentrated in four regions long-identified a COVID-19 hot spots.
Provincial figures showed 279 of the latest cases were reported in Toronto, 238 in neighbouring Peel Region, 130 in Ottawa and 113 in York Region.
The seven-day average of new daily cases, a measure that helps provide a clearer view of longer-term trends, now sits at 904, marking a slight drop from Saturday.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Christine Elliott said on Sunday that the province has conducted more than 37,100 tests since the last daily report, well below capacity.
A number of other areas saw double-digit increases as well:
Durham Region: 31
Niagara: 31.
Waterloo Region: 26.
Brant County: 25 — An increase of 22 from Saturday.
Simcoe Muskoka: 23
Hamilton: 21.
Halton Region: 16.
The new data brings Ontario’s death toll to 3,145 victims and means 65,581 of 76,707 cases have been resolved.
The update comes after 1,015 cases were reported on Saturday, the second-highest number recorded since the outbreak began in late January.
Brampton’s positivity rate hits 9.6%
Meanwhile, health officials and even Brampton’s mayor are sounding the alarm over the city’s 9.6 per cent test positivity rate.
At 9.6 per cent, this week’s Peel Health surveillance report shows an increase of 1.5 per cent over last week, but experts say if the positivity rate is five per cent, transmission rates are considered under control.
