The death toll for COVID-19 is fast approaching the 2,000 mark in Ontario with a new total of 1,993 deceased patients reported on Thursday morning (an increase of 31 over the day previous.)

Public health units also logged another 413 new cases of the coronavirus through the Ministry of Health's information system on Wednesday, representing a one-day case increase of 1.7 per cent for a grand total of 24,817.

While far less than the record-high daily increase of 640 new cases reported on April 24, the downward momentum Ontario has been experiencing in recent weeks appears to have stalled a bit.

#COVID19Ontario Update: The province is opening up and as predicted, the numbers are going the wrong way. Testing down and new cases up. I didn't want to react to a few days worth of increases but a trend is forming now. Let's hope the masking recommendations can help stop this. pic.twitter.com/dSQ1V6z7ho

— Claudio D (@Jacquecoobo) May 21, 2020

To wit: We were celebrating a new record-low case increase rate of just 1.2 per cent at this time last week after only 258 new patients were confirmed in the span of one day.

Some data analysts are calling the trend "worrisome" as Ontario begins to reopen its economy.

Today’s Ontario COVID-19 data

413 net new cases - 1.7% growth rate

7 Day Trend in cases up from 363 to 372

Trend is worrisome - more details later

Follow the trends, not the day to day roller-coaster

Charts in thread - more to come#COVID19Ontario @B2Bspecialist pic.twitter.com/Sasid4hGYQ

— Sal Vella (@salvella) May 21, 2020

Others are pointing out that, with a test backlog of 5,051, it's hard to say how much we're actually seeing the effects of Stage 1 on COVID-19 numbers — especially given that we only entered the first stage of recovery on Tuesday.

What we do know for certain at this point is that the province is falling way behind on testing again.

Only 10,506 COVID-19 tests were completed province-wide on Wednesday, marking the fourth day in a row that Ontario has fallen short of its own 16,00o test per day benchmark.

Frustrated. 🤬 We have the benefit of knowing what has worked elsewhere and yet we seem to turn a blind eye. Ontarians have complied for two months to do our part - we deserve better. #COVID19Ontario @ninatangri @fordnation @celliottability https://t.co/gLv4KWBXjM

— Samantha Cass (@Samantha_Cass) May 21, 2020

When asked about the low test numbers, which bottomed out at just 5,813 on Monday, Premier Doug Ford blamed the long weekend and vowed to increase testing rates immediately.

"We're going to ramp up this testing like this province has never seen," said Ford during his daily pandemic press conference on Wednesday, echoing statements he made in early April when test numbers hadn't yet even ramped up to more than 3,000 per day.

"I'm going to be all over this testing," he continued. "Another three, four weeks, we're going to do a lot of testing."

What that means, exactly, has yet to be determined.