A troubling spike in new COVID-19 cases is being reported this morning by the Ontario government, which is now starting to reopen parts of the economy after a hopeful period of watching the increase rate steadily decline.

An additional 477 cases of the deadly 2019 novel coronavirus were confirmed through the province's integrated Public Health Information System on Thursday, according to figures released Friday morning, marking the highest one-day increase in cases since May 2.

With a total number of 19,598 Ontarians infected to date, today's new patients represent a one-day increase rate of 2.5 per cent.

While this is higher than the encouraging 2.1 per cent increase rate we saw on Monday, when only 370 new cases were reported, it's important to note that the province has still come a long way in terms of controlling the outbreak.

#Covid_19 cases in #Ontario by %

🟢Resolved: 71.4%
🔵Active (non-hospitalized): 15.5%
🔵Hospitalized non-ICU: 4.2%
🔴ICU non-ventilated: 0.2%
🔴ICU+ventilator: 0.8%
⚫️Deceased: 7.9%#COVID19 #COVID19ON #covid19Canada #onhealth pic.twitter.com/3UhhcQCjB0

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) May 8, 2020

Today's rate of 2.5 per cent is still far better than what we were seeing in late April, when analysts were celebrating a relatively-low increase rate of 3.1 per cent.

Today's new case number is also far more encouraging than the record high of 640 additional cases confirmed on April 24.

Furthermore, overall rates of recovery continue to soar. As of May 7, some 71.4 per cent of all COVID-19 cases (13,990) were considered to be resolved, up from 70 per cent the day previous.

Testing numbers have also shot up significantly over the past week in Ontario, which may account for some of the recent spikes we've seen.

At least 16,295 tests were completed in the province on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Health, up from 15,179 the previous day.

#Covid19Ontario May8 +477 new cases 14641 pending 16295 tested. Highest new daily cases in 6 days. Hospitalization #'s steady. 14-day infection rate at 3.3% & slowly declining. #ONpoli
Chart https://t.co/dbnKbLMPLd
Data https://t.co/uQUch1ypzg
Source https://t.co/6BKKYIZP9b pic.twitter.com/LrQgk68HP0

— !PO! (@hungrypo) May 8, 2020

The pandemic mortality rate did rise slightly yesterday as well, however, up from 7.7 per cent of patients deceased to 7.9 per cent with 1,540 deaths now recorded across the province.

Sixty-three new deaths due to COVID-19 were reported on Friday morning and 61.3 per cent of all cases can now be found in the Greater Toronto Area.

Of particular concern for government officials are long-term care homes, where 234 outbreaks have now been confirmed. Of all the more than 1,500 coronavirus deaths in Ontario, Public Health Ontario reports that 720 have been among residents of long-term care homes.

The province's Ministry of Long-Term Care puts that number a lot higher at 1,150 deaths.

Canada-wide, COVID-19 has now killed at least 4,471 people and infected 65,399. The World Health Organization has confirmed just under 3.7 million cases globally to date along with 254,045 deaths.