Ottawa, May 14 (IANS): Ontario, Canada's most populous province, has announced the extension of its stay-at-home order against Covid-19 for two more weeks till early June.

"The situation is slowly trending in the right direction. Make no mistake, we're not out of the woods yet," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said at a press conference on Thursday.

Ford added that the extension is for Ontario to have "the most normal July and August as possible", Xinhua news agency reported

"As much as we're seeing a decline, which is good, everyone is moving forward, we're getting the vaccines into people's arms, but we just can't risk it. Just hang in there, we aren't asking a lot, just a couple more weeks," he said.

The order, which was set to expire on May 20, has now been extended to June 2.

The extension means thousands of businesses and outdoor recreational facilities in Ontario with a population of 14 million will remain closed.

Under the stay-at-home order, all non-essential businesses must remain closed and residents are required to remain indoors unless leaving their residence for an essential purpose.

Ontario reported 2,759 new cases of Covid-19 and additional 31 deaths on Thursday, the fourth day in which case numbers have fallen below the 3,000 mark.

Thursday's figure has increased the province's cumulative caseload to 502,171.

Ontario has completed 47,638 tests and logged a provincewide positivity rate of 5.7 per cent, the lowest in almost six weeks. Test positivity has been trending downward for several weeks.

Up to Thursday, 6.6 million Ontario residents have received at least one dose and 407,600 have received both their first and second and are considered fully vaccinated.

Canada has so far reported 1,310,015 Covid cases, with 24,804 deaths.