TORONTO -- Ontario has logged fewer than 900 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily infection count since October of last year.
Health officials confirmed 847 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, as well as 10 more deaths related to the disease.
The last time the province saw a daily case count this low was on Oct. 28, 2020, when 834 infections were logged.
There were 745 COVID-19 cases logged on Feb. 2, however officials said at the time that it was a significant "underestimation" due to a data issue.
The province logged 904 new infections on Tuesday, 963 on Monday and 981 on Sunday. Wednesday’s case count marks the fourth day in a row in which Ontario officials recorded case counts in the triple digits.
However, officials continue to say the province’s case totals may be impacted by fluctuating numbers in Toronto due to an ongoing data issue at the city's public health unit.
The province’s daily epidemiology report says that of the new cases reported on Wednesday, 257 were in Toronto, 170 were in Peel Region and 131 were in York Region.
The only other public health unit to report more than 50 cases of the novel coronavirus is Ottawa, with 53 new infections.
The province’s seven-day average for number of cases recorded is now 1,002, down from 1,357 one week ago.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continue to decline in Ontario. As of Wednesday, there were at least 719 people being treated for the disease, with 298 of those patients in the intensive care units (ICU).
Of those in the ICU, 211 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
The total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario now stands at 288,583, including 6,729 deaths and 270,869 recoveries.
Health officials say that 195,366 people have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and are now immunized against the disease.
How many cases are COVID-19 variants?
The province logged 29 new cases of the B.1.1.7. variant first found in the U.K. on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections to 338.
There are six lab-confirmed cases of the B.1.351 South African variant in Ontario and one P.1. variant, which was first found in Brazil.
According to provincial data, only seven per cent of these cases have been traced back to travel. About 80 per cent of the variant cases were associated with an outbreak or were a close contact of a confirmed case, while about 12 per cent had no known epidemiological link.
The Ministry of Health says the province’s positivity rate remains around 3 per cent, with a little more than 33,900 COVID-19 tests processed in the last 24 hours.
There are more than 33,700 tests under investigation.
Backstory:
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