Ontario reported 91 cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 419 new infections across the province over the long weekend, and announced Windsor-Essex will continue in Stage 2 until it can get a better handle on local transmission of the virus.

The 91 cases included nine in Windsor-Esex, which has the largest number of active infections in Ontario at 262, well above much larger Toronto which has 184 and moved to Stage 3 last Friday, allowing bars and restaurants to serve patrons indoors and movie theatres, gyms and playgrounds to reopen.

“We are working hard with our federal and local partners to provide the communities of Windsor-Essex with the support they need,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The government has come under criticism for not doing more weeks ago to help in the region where farm outbreaks have been persistent, but has sent emergency medical teams and is doing more testing for the virus on farm and greenhouse operations.

Ontario’s associate chief medical officer Dr. Barbara Yaffe said Windsor-Essex, the only region of the province not in Stage 3, is getting closer.

“Things are slowly improving but they’re not quite there yet,” she told a news conference. “We want to be extra careful.”

Elliott said almost half of the province’s public health units did not find new infections of COVID-19 as of numbers reported at 4 p.m. Monday.

“Twenty-nine of 34 public health units are reporting five or fewer cases, with 16 reporting no new cases,” she wrote on Twitter.

There were 22 new cases in Toronto, 16 in Peel, five in York and nine in Chatham-Kent, according to the Ministry of Health figures.

The new COVID-19 smartphone app launched Friday was downloaded just over 1 million times across the country, but no separate figures were available for Ontario where opposition parties said low-income residents with older phones are unable to use it because their operating systems are not compatible.

Authorities hope the app will provide an extra layer of help when an expected second wave of the virus arrives in the fall and winter by notifying people who have been in close contact with a person who has tested positive and is also using the app.

The public health unit in Ottawa issued an advisory on Twitter warning area residents to watch for a new coronavirus scam.

“No one from Ottawa Public Health (or any health agency) will ever call you and ask for your credit card number so we can mail you a COVID-19 test. These calls are a scam, they are fraudulent and let’s all let the awfulness of that sink in, shall we?”

The number of Ontarians in hospital with COVID-19 increased by three to 78, according to Ministry of Health figures, with three more patients in intensive care pushing the total to 28 and two more of them on ventilators, increasing that figure to 15.

A Star compilation of data from Ontario’s public health units at 5 p.m. Tuesday showed 125 new and probable cases in the previous 24 hours, raising the tally to 41,680 since late January. There were three additional deaths, for a total of 2,820.

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1