Ontario topped 9,000 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and saw the largest one-day increase in deaths, with reports of 67 more fatalities bringing the total to 410.

A Star compilation of online reports and press releases from health units across the province at 5 p.m. showed an increase of 569 people with confirmed or presumed infections of the novel coronavirus.

That was an increase of 6.7 per cent in the previous 24 hours, for a total of 9,055 since the outbreak began in January.

Nevertheless, chief medical officer Dr. David Williams said the rate of new infections appears to be levelling off.

“They are plateauing,” he told a news conference, noting that computer modelling suggests the illness will reach its apex in Ontario this week.

“We don’t have a massive peak coming up,” Williams added.

Other “good news” comes with reports that COVID-19 visits to hospital emergency departments have dropped off “significantly” and a plateau reached in admissions to intensive care units as well, he said.

The Ministry of Health reported that 3,568 people have now recovered from the new coronavirus, according to figures submitted by health units as of 4 p.m. Monday.

There were 769 Ontarians in hospital, including 255 in intensive care and 199 of them on ventilators helping them breathe. That’s a drop in eight people in ICU and four fewer on ventilators.

To date, 857 health-care workers have been infected with COVID-19, about half of them in the long-term-care sector.