The Ontario Public Health Department says that cases and deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus have decreased in the last week of available data, but the outbreak in nursing homes is on the rise.

The agency says 6968 COVID-19 cases were recorded during the week of September 4 to 10, compared to 8175 in the previous week.

There were 54 deaths in the last week of data, and 70 deaths in the previous week.

The agency says there were 47 long-term care homes in outbreak compared to 30 in the previous week.

The Ontario Public Health Authority says there is a noticeable increase in hospital admissions of children under one year old, with 17 children that week compared to eight children the previous week.

It says the overall positivity percentage is in the moderate range at 11.4 percent of 57251 tests conducted, slightly down from 12.7 percent the previous week.