SUDBURY -- Greater Sudbury added 18 more COVID-19 cases, Public Health Sudbury & Districts said Tuesday.

All of the cases are in Sudbury, and active cases now total 245, up from 243 on Monday. There are now 29 people in hospital at Health Sciences North with or suspected to have the disease. Four are in intensive care.

A total of 197 cases are being screened for the more contagious COVID variants, an increase of one from Monday. Three variant cases have been confirmed. There have now been 1,034 cases since the start of the pandemic last year in the area covered by Public Health.

In its daily update on how residents are contracting COVID, the health unit said two cases were related to an outbreak, 24 were the result of close contact with a confirmed case and the source of infection for nine cases is under investigation.

The area is currently under a lockdown after a surge in new cases in the last few weeks.