Ottawa, Nov 29 (IANS): Ontario, Canada's most populous province with a population of 14 million, reported 964 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number in a single day since May 30.

Ontario recorded 964 cases on Sunday and 854 cases of the novel coronavirus on Saturday.

Sunday's reported number raised the seven-day average for the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the province to 760. This time last week, that number was 645.

Of Sunday's new cases logged, 498 were found unvaccinated individuals, 396 were those fully vaccinated, and 21 cases were recorded in partially vaccinated individuals. The vaccination status of the remaining 49 cases is unknown, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ontario processed 29,692 Covid-19 tests in the last 24 hours, pushing the positivity rate to 3.2 per cent.

There were 122 people hospitalised with Covid-19 and 135 people were in ICU with the disease. However, vaccination information for those hospitalised was not provided.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2020, Ontario had confirmed 617,015 cases of Covid-19, including 600,537 recoveries and 9,994 deaths. Up to Saturday, Canada reported a cumulative of 1,784,354 Covid-19 cases, including 29,628 deaths.

According to the Ontario government, nearly 89.6 per cent of Ontarians above the age of 12 years had one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 86.3 per cent had two doses.

Despite a growing push to roll out Covid-19 vaccine boosters more widely in Canada, epidemiologists said there is currently no evidence of an urgent need for additional shots in the general population due to the strong, ongoing protection of two doses already provide.

But with the emergence of the more infectious Omicron variant in the world, the Christmas holidays are rapidly approaching and Covid-19 levels remain elevated in many areas of the country.

Some provinces and territories in the country have already expanded access to boosters while others have taken a more cautious approach by only offering them to certain vulnerable groups and healthcare workers.

Medical experts are divided over the need to expand access to additional shots to more Canadians and the emergence of the Omicron variant will likely only heat up the debate further until people know more about it.