TORONTO -- More than 4,000 people have died after contracting COVID-19 in Ontario since the beginning of the pandemic as the province recorded more than 2,000 new cases of the disease for the second consecutive day.

Health officials logged 2,139 more cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday as well as 43 more deaths, bringing the total tally of deceased to 4,035.

Of the deaths reported on Wednesday, 22 were residents of long-term care homes.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,804 people over the age of 80 have died after contracting COVID-19.

At least 1,054 people between the ages of 60 and 79 have died due to the disease. Another 161 deaths have been recorded in people between the ages of 40 and 60.

Fifteen people between the ages of 20 and 39 have died after being diagnosed with the disease.

The new number of infections on Wednesday mark a slight decrease from the record-breaking 2,275 cases reported on Tuesday, although the province says those cases were partially impacted by changes in how Public Health Ontario extracts data.

The province logged 1,940 cases on Monday, 1,677 on Sunday, 1,873 on Saturday, and 1,848 on Friday.

As of Wednesday, there are at least 932 people being treated for COVID-19 in Ontario hospitals. The province says that of those patients, 256 are in intensive care units (ICU) and 157 of those in the ICU are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.

Where are the COVID-19 cases?

The majority of infections continue to be found in the Greater Toronto Area.

In Ontario’s lockdown regions, there were 780 cases in Toronto, 528 in Peel Region, and 148 in York Region. 

Windsor-Essex, the only non-GTA lockdown region in Ontario as of Wednesday, logged 111 new cases.

Other municipalities that logged more than 50 new COVID-19 infections include Durham (143), Halton (55), Niagara (51) and Waterloo (52).

On Wednesday, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he has been discussing the possibility of further restrictions for the holidays.

The lockdown measures in Toronto are set to expire on Dec. 21, at which point the province can either end the lockdown or extend it.

The province has previously said that while it may not appear the lockdown efforts are working in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in hot spots, if no further measures were implemented, there would likely have been a large increase in the number of cases in those areas.

The province says officials have processed more than 49,000 tests in the last 24 hours, which brings Ontario’s positivity rate to about 4.3 per cent.

More than 65,000 are still under investigation.

The total number of lab confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 in Ontario now stands at 146,535, including deaths and recoveries.