The province is reporting 640 new cases of COVID-19 Friday, marking a five per cent increase in total cases over Thursday.

The growth rate in total cases remains relatively low. However, Friday’s number is the largest single-day increase since the beginning of the outbreak.

The provincial total is now 13,519 cases, including 763 deaths and 7,087 resolved cases.

The number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 has increased to 910. The province says 243 are in intensive care units and of those people, 193 are on a ventilator.

Eight more long-term care homes have declared an outbreak and roughly 45 per cent of all new cases of COVID-19 are in people 60 years of age and older.