Nearly 100 people in Ontario have now died as a result of contracting the 2019 novel coronavirus, according to public health officials, and more than 500 are currently hospitalized.

The latest update to the province's dedicated COVID-19 web page reveals that 3,630 coronavirus patients had been reported by Ontario's integrated Public Health Information System as of 10:30 a.m. on April 3.

With 375 newly-diagnosed cases, this represents an increase of 11.5 per cent over the previous day, which saw the biggest overnight jump in case numbers since the pandemic started with 462 new patients.

A total of 94 people are confirmed dead as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic as of Saturday morning, up 27 over the day previous, and 1,219 are now considered to be "resolved."

Only 1,336 people remain under investigation, suggesting that the province is finally working through its backlog of tests. To date, more than 71,000 Ontarians have been tested for the coronavirus.

Pleased to see that "Currently Under Investigation" is back up on the #Ontario site with 5,651 pending #COVID19 tests. We did it twitter💁‍♀️ #COVID19Ontario https://t.co/pa5Lg3oljl https://t.co/nvIOEufu9Q pic.twitter.com/bdFFRhKu4E

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) March 30, 2020

According to Public Health Ontario's daily epidemiologic summary for April 3, 36 outbreaks have now been reported in long-term care homes across the province.

Nearly 50 per cent of all patients diagnosed in Ontario are still said to have "exposure information pending," while 21.3 per cent had travelled in the 14 days before getting sick and another 12.5 per cent had been in close contact with another confirmed case.

As revealed yesterday by the province's top doctors, current projection models show that as many as 80,000 people could fall ill with COVID-19 before the pandemic is under control (a process that could take up to two years, says Public Health Ontario President Dr. Peter Donnelly.) 

With strict social distancing and other public health measures in effect, the total number of fatalities is expected to be between 3,500 and 15,000 people across the province.

Globally, more than one million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded by the World Health Organization, along with 56,985 confirmed deaths across 208 countries.