Ontario reported more than 600 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, as low testing overall volumes continue to produce test positivity rates of more than three per cent.

The province reported 613 new cases of COVID-19 and six net new deaths today, up from 481 cases last Tuesday.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases now stands at 675. That is a 16.5 per cent increase from one week ago when it stood at 579.

The province reported 627 cases on Tuesday and 741 on Sunday.

Ontario labs processed less than 20,000 specimens, generating a positivity rate of 3.1 per cent.

The Ministry of Health says 288 of Tuesday’s cases involved unvaccinated people, 30 involved people with one dose, 266 involved fully vaccinated people and 29 involved people with unknown vaccination status.

Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people made up 52 per cent of Tuesday’s cases despite forming only 25 per cent of Ontario’s population.

Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table finds that even with millions of people now five months out from their second dose or longer, full vaccination is still associated with an 81 per cent relative reduction risk in infection and a 92 per cent relative reduction in risk of hospitalization.

The Ministry also said they identified nine new deaths due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, but they removed three earlier deaths from the total due to data cleanup or a revised cause of death in those instances, leading to a net increase of six.

The province has reported a net increase of 36 deaths due to COVID-19 in the past week.

The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 reported since March 2020 now stands at 9,974.

Ontario’s known active caseload of COVID-19 cases fell by 90 from Monday to 5,487.

Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine booking portal began accepting appointments for children ages 5-11 to receive their first doses on Tuesday, with shots going in to arms as early as this Thursday.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore told CP24 children will be given doses eight weeks apart, and they should receive their first dose two weeks or longer from the date of their influenza vaccine shot.

A spokesperson for Premier Doug Ford’s office told CP24 that 68,000 appointments for children to receive first doses were confirmed in the first three hours the portal was open on Tuesday.

Across Ontario’s hospitals, there were 282 people receiving treatment due to COVID-19, with 134 in intensive care, up one from Monday.

Eight of Ontario’s ICU patients were transferred in from Saskatchewan.

Across the GTA, Toronto reported 72 new cases, Peel Region reported 35 and York Region reported 47.

Durham reported 22 new cases, Halton reported 10 new cases and Hamilton reported 13.

The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.