Today's COVID-19 data drop from the Ontario government has proven disappointing, in terms of fatalities, after a nearly one-month-long period of relatively low daily death tolls.

A total of 45 deaths were recorded through the province's integrated Public Health Information System on Wednesday, according to numbers released Thursday morning, up from 19 new deaths on Tuesday, 17 deaths on Monday and just 10 on Sunday.

This is the highest number of new deaths per day we've seen since May 11, when 56 deaths were reported, though it's still far lower than the record 84 deaths reported overnight between May 2 and 3.

Some 2,357 people have now died as a result of contracting the deadly virus in Ontario, 1,509 of them (roughly 64 per cent) residents of long-term care homes.

A closer look at #COVIDー19 daily changes in #Ontario🎢

New cases: 356
New deaths: 45
New resolved: 397

Thicker line is 7 day moving average.#COVID19 #COVID19ON #covid19Canada #onhealth pic.twitter.com/LsFWLqIiTM

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) June 4, 2020

The province's mortality rate remains steady at eight per cent, however, and daily case numbers have yet to soar past the 400 mark again after a marked drop in new patients reported yesterday.

Ontario reported a 1.2 per cent increase in case numbers today with 356 new patients, bringing the province's total number of confirmed cases to 29,403.

Of those nearly 30,000 cases, 23,208 are now considered to be resolved, representing a recovery rate of 78.9 per cent within the province.

#Covid19Ontario Jun4 +356 cases 12760 pending 20822 tested. New cases relatively steady from yesterday with testing #'s nice and high. #ONpoli
Chart https://t.co/dbnKbLMPLd
Data https://t.co/uQUch1ypzg
Source https://t.co/6BKKYIZP9b pic.twitter.com/U6C8sWvmEo

— !PO! (@hungrypo) June 4, 2020

As of Thursday morning, Public Health Ontario is reporting the Greater Toronto Area accounts for about 66.4 per cent of all cases.

Some 4,854 cases of COVID-19 (16.5 per cent of the provincial total) have been confirmed among healthcare workers to date and roughly 12.2 of all cases have involved a hospitalization.

While we're not yet hitting the kind of decline in daily numbers many had hoped to see by this point, there are reasons to be optimistic about Ontario's progress in the fight against COVID-19.

Not only are testing rates well up from a troublesome dip observed a few weeks ago, with 20,822 completed Wednesday, only 776 confirmed patients are currently in hospital — the lowest number recorded since April 14.