Ontario reports 10 new COVID-19 deaths, daily cases just under 1,000

Ontario says 10 more people have died as a result of COVID-19 with new cases climbing to just under the 1,000 mark.

As of Thursday’s update, 7,024 people in the province have died from the virus.

Provincial health officials reported 994 new infections on Thursday, a slight increase from 958 cases the day before. It is the third day in a row that daily cases have been fewer than 1,000.

Most of the new diagnoses are in Toronto (298), followed by Peel Region (171), and York Region (64).

The daily update is based on 65,643 tests completed but there remains a backlog of 42,723.

Ontario also reported a test positivity rate of 2.1 per cent, which is a drop from 2.4 per cent on Wednesday. At the start of the week, the positivity rate was 3.1 per cent.

The province administered another 30,409 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine since the previous update on Wednesday. A total of 784,828 doses have been administered overall.

According to the latest data, 649 people are currently hospitalized and 281 of those patients are in ICU with 183 on a ventilator.

Health officials reported another 96 cases of variants of concern in the province, bringing the total to 678. Of that total, 644 are cases of the variant first discovered in the United Kingdom, 31 cases of the variant first identified in South Africa and three of the variant first discovered in Brazil.