April 20, 2021

April 20th is the 110th day of 2021. There are 255 days remaining until the end of the year.

Seventeen new positive COVID-19 cases from the weekend wer reported Monday by Chatham-Kent Public Health.

There were 20 recoveries, dropping the total active cases locally to 38.

There were 4,447 positive cases reported Monday in Ontario. 73% in the hotspots of Toronto, Peel, York, Ottawa and Hamilton.

The province has now reported more than 4,000 new cases for six straight days.

There’s a blood donor clinic today in Wallaceburg at the UAW Hall (88 Elm Dr.) from 2-7.

Book yours now at Blood.ca, use the Give Blood app or call 1-888-2-DONATE. Donations are by appointment only, no walk-in appointments are available.

Clinics will remain open throughout the pandemic. Leaving home to give blood is allowed even during a lockdown.

Your donation matters, book now and save a life.

NASA has successfully flown a small helicopter on Mars.

The rotorcraft was carried to Mars on Nasa’s Perseverance Rover that landed on the Red Planet in February.

The drone, called Ingenuity, was airborne for less than a minute, but they’re celebrating what is the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another world.

The space agency is promising more adventurous flights in the days ahead.

The flight was shot by the rover, which was parked about 200 feet away.

It happened. Today our #MarsHelicopter proved that powered, controlled flight from the surface of another planet is possible. It takes a little ingenuity, perseverance, and spirit to make that opportunity a reality: https://t.co/oT3rrBm6wj pic.twitter.com/u63GKshp0G

— NASA (@NASA) April 19, 2021

Organizers of the country-fuelled Boots and Hearts music festival are pulling the plug on this year’s summertime event.

Boots and Hearts is one of the province’s biggest music festivals and was going to be held over the August 5th weekend at the Burl’s Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, north of Barrie.

The next four-day Boots and Hearts festival for August 4th, 2022.

💔 pic.twitter.com/nDro7qzPRC

— Boots and Hearts (@BootsandHearts) April 19, 2021

Apple is hosting its first event of 2021 today and it’ll likely focus on new iPads, along with a product that’s been years in the making.

Today’s event will be held virtually. The invitations for the press conference included an image of colourful spirals that form the Apple logo — a picture made to look as if it had been produced by an Apple Pencil, hinting at updates to its iPad line. Apple invitations are often filled with little clues.

It is expected to show off an updated iPad Pro with a faster processor, 5G support, a Thunderbolt port so it can connect to more external monitors and a Mini LED display.

Perhaps the buzziest product in the rumor mill is the potential debut of AirTags, a Tile-like Bluetooth locator that attaches to and helps you find items such as keys, wallets, laptops or even your car. AirTags have been reportedly in the works as far back as 2019.

Apple’s event kicks off at 1:00pm on its website, YouTube and Apple TV.

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod