TORONTO -- Ontario is reporting a spike in deaths related to COVID-19 as it enters the 10th day in a row where the daily case counts have reached the quadruple digits.

Health officials recorded another 1,248 cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, a single-day dip in infections following a record of 1,581 on Saturday.

The province is also logging 29 more deaths related to COVID-19, the highest number since June 19.

According to Sunday’s epidemiology report, 20 of those deaths were residents in long-term care homes.

People over the age of 80 continue to be hardest hit by the disease. Since the pandemic was first declared, 2,323 people within this demographic have died after contracting COVID-19.

In total, the province reported 889 deaths in people between the ages of 60 and 79, 137 deaths in people between the ages of 40 and 59 and 11 deaths in people between the ages of 20 and 39.

At least 479 people are being treated for COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals, however the province says that number is an underestimation as about 40 hospitals did not submit their data.

“We anticipate the number of hospitalized patients may increase when reporting compliance increases,” the report says.

Of those patients, 118 are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 67 of those in the ICU are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

The total number of lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ontario now stands at 94,009, including deaths and recoveries.

Ontario’s seven-day average for number of cases has dipped slightly and is now 1,408.

Where are the COVID-19 cases?

The majority of COVID-19 cases reported Sunday remain within the Greater Toronto Area.

There were 364 infections in Toronto, 308 in Peel Region, and 125 in York Region.

However, provincial officials said that Toronto failed to enter 40 additional cases due to a technical error. With the additional cases, the city’s total for Sunday would be 404 new infections.

Other public health units that reported more than 20 cases of COVID 19 include Ottawa (62), Durham Region (62), Simcoe-Muskoka (26), Middlesex-London (29), Windsor (23), Hamilton (31), Niagara Region (23), Halton Region (54), Region of Waterloo (48) and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (24).

While those over the age of 80 appear to be the ones dying from COVID-19, the majority of cases are being logged in people under the age of 79.

On Sunday, 480 infections were found in people between the ages of 20 and 39, while 329 were between the ages of 40 and 59 and 173 were in people between the ages of 60 and 79.

One hundred and seventy-eight COVID-19 cases were found in people under the age of 20.

COVID-19 testing in Ontario

In the last 24 hours, a little more than 42,000 COVID-19 tests were processed, bringing the positivity rate in Ontario to 3.8.

There are more than 26,000 tests under investigation.

Ontario has conducted more than 5.6 million COVID-19 tests since the pandemic was declared.