TORONTO -- Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases for the second day in row, as well as 74 more deaths related to the disease.

The province confirmed 2,961 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday after a drop in infection numbers just the day before when 2,903 cases were added. This comes after several days of record-breaking case numbers over the 3,000 mark.

While the case numbers have dropped, the positivity rate remains high. With just over 50,000 tests completed on Wednesday, the Ontario Ministry of health said the positivity rate now stands at about six per cent.

On Tuesday, with just over 40,000 tests completed, that positivity rate was about 7.8.

The province’s seven-day average for number of infections recorded is now 3,479, up from 3,113 one week ago.

The province said that among the 74 people reported to have died due to COVID-19, one of them was a staff member at a long-term care home. Thirty-six long-term care residents were also among the deceased.

Health officials report that 10 long-term care health-workers have died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. More than 3,063 long-term care residents have died due to the disease.

In total, the province has recorded 5,127 deaths due to COVID-19.

Just over 1,600 people are currently in hospital due to the disease, according to the province. Of those patients, more than 385 are in intensive care, and 276 are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Health officials have said that when more than 300 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, medical care in hospitals not related to the disease becomes nearly impossible to handle.

The province also deemed 3,392 more cases of the disease to be resolved as of Wednesday, bringing Ontario’s number of recovered patients up to 190,221.

Wednesday’s case count brings the total number of lab-confirmed cases in Ontario to 224,984, including deaths and recoveries.

Where are the COVID-19 cases in Ontario?

Of the 2,961 cases reported on Wednesday, health officials said that 738 were in Toronto, 536 were in Peel Region and 219 were in York Region.

Several other regions in Ontario reported COVID-19 cases numbers in the triple digits, including Ottawa (154), Durham Region (119), Middlesex-London (103), Windsor-Essex (245), Hamilton (171), Niagara Region (131) and Waterloo (146).

In an effort to help curb the spread of the disease, the provincial government ordered a 28-day Ontario-wide lockdown on Dec. 26.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford issued a stay-at-home order for the province beginning on Jan. 14 and immediately declared a second state of emergency on Tuesday.

There were 50,931 COVID-19 tests completed in the province in the last-recorded 24-hour period. There are 61,259 COVID-19 tests still under investigation.

In total, Ontario has processed more than 8.6 million tests since the pandemic began in January.

As of 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 144,784 initial doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario, including 11,231 doses administered in the past 24 hours. The vaccine requires a booster shot, as such, 8,778 complete vaccinations have been completed as of Wednesday.