February 18, 2021

February 18th is the 49th day of 2021. There are 316 days remaining until the end of the year.

Chatham-Kent Public Health is reporting that the active COVID19 cases are down to 38, with three new cases and 15 resolved.

Sadly, another death due to COVID has also been reported, bringing the local deaths total to 9.

Ontario is reporting 847 new cases. That’s the fourth straight day with cases below 1,000.

It’s the lowest daily increase in cases since October.

Ontario gas prices are set to jump this week to the highest they’ve been in over a year.

Parts of the province could see a 3-cent hike per litre later today.

This means that some spots could see gas prices rise as high as 120.9 cents per litre; that would be the highest price the province has seen in over 18 months.

NASA‘s Perseverance Rover will land on Mars today.

Launched in the Summer for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, it will touch down in Jezero Crater, on the Martian surface.

Perseverance, or “Percy” for short, will explore the Martian terrain and conduct a number of science investigations. Among its objectives, Percy will collect samples, deploy the first helicopter beyond Earth, and search for signs of ancient life on the fourth planet from the sun.

You can follow the landing live coverage today at 2:15pm. Watch live here at Space.com or directly at NASA TV on YouTube.

Major League Baseball spring training is here.

Pitchers and catchers started reporting to camps yesterday.

The upcoming season is set to be a full, 162-game slate with Opening Day on the calendar for April 1st.

The Detroit Tigers reported Wednesday, the Blue Jays will report today.

It’s also expected today that the Jays will announce that they’ll start the regular season at their Spring Training home in Dunedin, Florida. The pandemic situation and border status will determine when they’re available to play games in Toronto.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is once again the world’s wealthiest man.

Elon Musk held the top spot for the last six weeks until shares of Tesla went down. Bezos is worth $191 billion while Musk is worth $190 billion.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is the world’s third-wealthiest person with a net worth of $137 billion

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod