Ontario appears to be back on track in its fight against COVID-19 after weeks of back-and-forth, up-and-down, all around unpredictable new daily case numbers.

The province's Ministry of Health reported just 243 new cases of the deadly virus on Monday morning, representing an all-time low increase rate of just 0.8 per cent and the lowest new case count we've seen since March 29.

In fact, today marks the first time Ontario has reported less than 300 new COVID-19 patients in one day since entering Stage 1 of its economic reopening plan.

More than 30,860 cases of the viral disease have now been logged through the province's integrated Public Health Information System since the pandemic first started, with 24,492 cases (or 79.4 per cent) currently marked as "resolved."

In #Ontario, another 243 new #covid19 #coronavirus cases reported, no reported delays. Now 30860 total, 24492 resolved, 3918 active, 2450 deaths. Updated 6/8/2020.#covid19Canada #COVIDー19 #onhealth #COVID_19 #covidontario #COVID19ontario #onpoli #FlattenTheCurve pic.twitter.com/0Atd7qj32b

— Eugene Y. Chan, Ph.D. (@euges116) June 8, 2020

Also nice to see is the province's mortality rate falling again after holding steady at 8.0 per cent for an entire week.

Only 24 new deaths were recorded yesterday, bringing the total number of Ontarians confirmed to have died as a result of contracting the 2019 novel coronavirus to 2,450 and making for an overall mortality rate of 7.9 per cent.

Among those who've died, 1,575 (64.3 per cent) are said to have been patients of long-term care homes.

The number of cases coming out of Toronto continues to rise, however, proportionate to the rest of the province, with GTA public health units now accounting for 67.3 per cent of all cases.

It is also of note today that testing rates fell slightly below the province's own 16,000-per-day benchmark on Sunday to 15,357 — nearly 10,000 less than the government's stated capacity of 25,000.

#COVID19 testing in #Ontario🦠🧪🇨🇦

-% positive 1.6% - (orange)👍🏻
-Testing: 15357 today (red)👍🏻
-Backlog: 4811 pending today (green)

Hope testing continues to ramp up!#onhealth #COVIDー19 #COVID19ON #CovidTesting pic.twitter.com/pJ8vaIXdhE

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

While Ontario has not yet reported less than 200 new cases per day since the outbreak peaked — the figure Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams says he'd like to see before the government fully reopens the economy — today's number is reason to celebrate.

The last time we saw this figure come in below the 300 mark was on May 13, when 258 new cases were confirmed overnight across the province — though this dip was followed by a swift, significant and weeks-long uptick as retailers began to reopen, prompting Premier Doug Ford to consider tightening restrictions on public life once again.

Fortunately, the rise in case numbers has tapered off enough for Stage 1 to proceed as planned. And then some: the Premier is expected to announce the details of his government's Stage 2 reopening process this afternoon.

After nearly three months of living in province-wide a state of emergency, Ontarians are understandably stoked by the prospect of visiting hair salons and restaurants again.