Ontario's Ministry of Health is reporting fewer than 100 new cases of COVID-19 across the province for the first time since they started posting daily updates back in March.

Only 76 new infections were logged through the province's integrated Public Health Information System on Tuesday, according to the government, marking an all-time low increase rate of just 0.2 per cent.

This should come as comforting news to those worried about a second wave of outbreaks as Toronto gears up to enter Stage 3 — though officials say the threat of COVID-19 is far from a distant memory.

"Ontario, we're making tremendous progress," said Minister of Health Christine Elliot when announcing the record low case increase Wednesday morning. "But it's never been more important that each of us continue to practice physical distancing and wear a mask when doing so isn't possible."

Today, Ontario is reporting 76 new cases of #COVID19, a 0.2% increase and the lowest day-over-day increase since March 22. Hospitalizations, ICU admissions and vented patients have all declined. The province processed over 27,300 tests yesterday.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) July 29, 2020

Today's freshly-released daily epidemiologic summary for Ontario shows that one death was reported on Tuesday, while 174 more cases were marked as resolved.

More than 34,741 patients are now considered to be recovered from the viral illness.

With a total of 38,986 cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Ontario since the pandemic first hit in January, this represents a recovery rate of 89.1 per cent. The mortality rate currently sits at 7.1 per cent.

Testing numbers also remain well above the province's benchmark number, with 27,308 completed on Tuesday and 2,114,263 tests now processed in total.

A closer look at #COVIDー19 daily changes in #Ontario

New cases: 76
New deaths: 1
New resolved: 174

Thicker lines = 7 day moving averages.#COVID19 #COVID19ON #covid19Canada pic.twitter.com/J9cdTZtCFK

— Dr. Jennifer Kwan (@jkwan_md) July 29, 2020

While it's too early to say we're out of the woods, public health experts say Ontario is definitely trending in the right direction.

Even the World Health Organization is giving kudos to Canada for its handling of the pandemic: On Monday, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted our home and native land during a press conference as an example of a country that's done well in "bringing large outbreaks under control."

Only 91 patients are currently hospitalized as a result of contracting the coronavirus in Ontario as of Wednesday, 28 of them in the ICU and 17 on ventilators.

Elliott said this morning that officials will continue to monitor these numbers closely as more regions move into Stage 3. As of this Friday, only Windsor-Essex will remain in Stage 2. Peel Region and Toronto, which confirmed only one new case of the virus on Tuesday, will advance to the next stage of reopening at 12:10 a.m. on July 31.