March 31, 2020

March 31st is the 91st day of the year. There are 275 days remaining until the end of the year.

Premier Doug Ford announced last night that the state of emergency and all of its orders currently in effect will be extended from March 31st until April 13th. The government first issued the declaration on March 17th.

As of Monday, there are now 1,706 cases province-wide, 6 in Chatham-Kent, with the first patient given a clean bill of health this week.

In addition to the declaration, the province has issued a new emergency order to close all outdoor recreational amenities — such as sports field, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, off-leash dog parks, beaches, skateboard and BMX parks, picnic areas, park shelters, outdoor exercise equipment, condo parks and community gardens — effective immediately. The Municipality of Chatham-Kent already had this ban in place.

Green spaces in parks, trails, ravines and conservation areas that aren’t already closed will remain open for walkthrough access, but everyone is expected to maintain a safe physical distance of at least two metres apart from others.

Officials with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced yesterday that the games will be held from July 23rd to August 8th, 2021. The Paralympic Games will be held from August 24th to September 5th, 2021.

The 2020 Tokyo Games were postponed due to concerns about the coronavirus.

The delay of the 2020 Games marks the first time the Olympics and Paralympics have been postponed in their history. It was previously announced that all athletes who have already qualified for the Games will maintain that status.

Couple COVID tidbits…

The North American International Auto Show in Detroit has been canceled because the convention center is being converted to a hospital due to the coronavirus. The show was scheduled to take place in June.

This year was supposed to be the first year for the show in June, previously it was held in early January. NAIAS will hold its next annual show in June 2021. Tickets purchased for the 2020 NAIAS show, including tickets for the public show, industry preview, and charity preview will be fully refunded.

With COVID closures closing tourist destinations everywhere, the Egyptian pyramids are undergoing a deep clean. The three structures built between 2575 and 2465 B.C. were scrubbed, well not actually the pyramids, but the tourist kiosks and offices were cleansed.

Taco Bell is giving out free tacos today. In the U.S. only, you’ll get a free Doritos Locos Taco, no purchase necessary.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle suspended their Sussex Royal Instagram account Monday.

Today is the day the couple steps back from their royal duties.

In addition to the Instagram account, the Sussex Royal website will also no longer be updated. They had been spending time in B.C., but relocated to Los Angeles last week.

Tomorrow is April Fools Day, but it doesn’t look like there will be a lot of pranks being pulled with the world dealing with a pandemic this year.

According to an internal email Google will “take the year off from that tradition out of respect for all those fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.”

They posted, “Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so let’s save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one.”

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod