TORONTO -- Ontario is reporting a single-day drop in the number of new COVID-19 cases with less than 1,000 new infections logged.

Health officials recorded 990 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, which is a decline from the 1,250 cases reported on Friday.

Despite the dip in case numbers, the province's positivity rate remains at 2.3 per cent as fewer tests were completed in the previous 24-hour period then the day before.

The province is also reporting six additional COVID-19-related deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities in the province to 7,052 since the start of the pandemic. Two of th new deaths were among long-term care home residents.

On Saturday, health officials deemed 1,152 more cases of the disease to be resolved, bringing Ontario's number of recovered patients up to 289,735.

Saturday's case count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 306,997, including deaths and recoveries.

According to the province, there are at least 620 patients infected with COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals as of Saturday. Of those patients, 278 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 181 of those 281 patients are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

There are 284 new COVID-19 cases in Toronto, 173 in Peel Region and 82 in York Regon.

The seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases in Ontario is now 1,035.

Variants of concern in Ontario

Health officials confirmed Saturday that 27 more cases of the U.K. variant, also known as B.1.1.7, have been found in Ontario, bringing the province’s total count to 826.

There is now a total of 31 confirmed cases of the South African variant, known as B.1.351.

Five new cases of the Brazilian variant, known as P.1, were recorded Saturday, pushing the province's total infection count at eight.

Meanwhile, 860,412 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario thus far, including 39,698 administered in the previous day.

In Ontario, 270,625 total vaccinations have been completed as of Saturday.

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.