Ontario reports 552 new COVID-19 cases, 3 additional deaths

Ontario reported 552 new cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths linked to the illness on Monday.

Today's case count is up about 15 per cent from the same time last week, when the province logged 480 infections.

The seven-day average of daily cases climbed to 573, up from 476 last Monday, an increase of more than 20 per cent.

Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table reported last week that infections are on the rise in most public health units, with some notable exceptionssuch as in Peel Region, which was particularly hard hit by earlier waves of the pandemic.

While overall case counts are increasing, the doubling time has slowed, according to the science table. Daily infections are currentlydoubling every 24 days or so, as opposed to about every 17 days last week.

Here are some other key pandemic indicators and figures from theMinistry of Health's daily provincial update:

Patients in ICUs with COVID-related illnesses: 141, with 79 relying on ventilators to breathe.

Tests in the previous 24 hours: 21,475, with a 2.2 per cent positivity rate.

Active cases: 4,985, the most since Oct. 3.

Death toll: 9,937.

Vaccinations: 7,251doses were administered by public health units on Sunday, the fewest on a single day since Thanksgiving. About 85.6 per cent of eligible Ontarians have had two shots.