Ontario reports more than 10,000 daily cases of COVID-19 for the 1st time

Public Health Ontario says the province has recorded more than 10,000 new daily cases of COVID-19 for the first time.

The 10,412 diagnoses reported on Christmas Day surpass the previous record of 9,571, which was set Friday.

It's the third day in a row the province has broken its record for daily case counts.

Public Health Ontario is also reporting another four deaths linked to the virus.

The rolling seven-day average of new daily cases now stands at 5,939 — more than double that of last Saturday, which was 2,156.

Of the new cases, more than half are in the GTA: 2,899 were in Toronto, 1,025 in York region, 965 in Peel and 572 in Durham.

Cases of COVID-19 have been surging in the province due to the highly infectious Omicron variant.

Experts have said the actual number of cases is likely far higher than those reported each day, because many public health units have reached their testing capacity.

Meanwhile, the race to provide COVID-19 vaccine boosters continues in Ontario, with some clinics continuing to run on Christmas Day.