Ontario has begun the new year with a record number of new COVID-19 infections.

Public Health Ontario says there are 18,445 new novel coronavirus cases today. That beats the previous record set yesterday of 16,713.

They warn, though, this number is an underestimate of individuals with COVID-19 in the province.

Ontario has been hampered by a lack of testing capacity.

The seven-day average of new cases now stands at 12,496. That’s up from 5,939 cases this time a week ago.

The provincial government will release all data from January 1-3 on Tuesday.