The Province of Ontario is back on track to win the fight against COVID-19 with less than 200 new cases recorded on Tuesday after a modest Monday spike of 216.

In fact, with just 163 new cases confirmed overnight, today's figure marks the lowest we've seen since the province started keeping track through its daily epidemiologic summaries in late March.

"Like most of last week, today Ontario is reporting fewer than 200 cases," announced Minister of Health Christine Elliott Wednesday morning.

"With 229 more resolved, there are now also 66 fewer active cases in the province."

#COVID19 in #Ontario [June 24]:
34016 known cases* (163 new cases)
2631 total deaths (12 new deaths)

See THREAD for more graphs📈⤵️#covid19Canada #COVIDー19 #onhealth #COVID_19 #covidontario #COVID19ontario #onpoli pic.twitter.com/CHuiKEwzxL

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) June 24, 2020

More than 34,016 Ontarians have now been infected by the deadly 2019 novel coronavirus, but the vast majority have since recovered from their illnesses.

The new case increase rate reported this morning is once again just 0.5 per cent while the recovery rate is at an all-time high of 86.2 per cent.

Ontario's Ministry of Health is furthermore continuing to report high testing levels well above its own benchmark as Toronto and Peel head into Stage 2 of the reopening process, with 23,207 completed on Tuesday alone.

Some 1,236,023 tests have now been completed in Ontario since the start of the pandemic and 21, 398 are currently under investigation.

[2020-06-24]
New Cases: 163
Tests Completed: 23207
Total Cases: 34016#COVID19Toronto #COVID19Ontario #Coronavirus
Like and retweet to inform others!https://t.co/UOdB2WzMlr

— Ontario Coronavirus Updates (@OntarioCovid19) June 24, 2020

Sadly, however, 2,631 people have now died as a result of contracting the virus, representing an overall mortality rate of 7.7 per cent.

Of those deaths, 12 occurred between Monday and Tuesday. Roughly 64 per cent of all deaths recorded (1,683) have been reported among residents in long-term care homes.

While Toronto still has a proportionately higher number of cases than most regions, public health officials feel confident enough in the region's recovery so far that they've okayed Canada's largest city to reopen hair salons, restaurant patios and everything else under Stage 2 beginning today. Only Windsor-Essex remains in Stage 1 as of Wednesday, July 24.

"Locally, fully 30 of Ontario's 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases today, a new high, with 16 of them reporting no new cases at all," said Elliott this morning. "That's welcome news as we continue to safely and gradually reopen the province."