The province is reporting fewer people in hospital today because of COVID-19 but more people are in intensive care and outbreaks have been reported at two local long-term care facilities.

14 staff and 11 residents at Cove Guest Home in Sydney have been infected, along with two residents at the Harbour View Hospital long-term care unit in Sydney Mines.

The province says Public Health is working with the facilities to prevent further spread and more health measures have been put in place.  

Meanwhile, the province says six more people have been admitted to hospital because of COVID-19, while another six have been released.

That leaves the total number of COVID-related admissions in the province at 57.

That's two lower than yesterday.

10 of those people are in intensive care.

That’s up from seven yesterday.

Another 891 lab-confirmed cases are being reported today.

534 are in the Central Zone, 198 are in the Eastern Zone that includes Cape Breton, 77 are in the Northern Zone and 82 are in the Western Zone.

The province says its plan to cut childcare fees by 50 percent by the end of the year is ahead of schedule.

The provincial and federal governments announced this morning fees will be cut by 25 percent, retroactive to January 1^st.

The say parents will continue to pay their current rate until April 1^st when they can choose to either get a cheque or a credit from their childcare centre to reflect the reduction from January to March.

The province’s childcare agreement with Ottawa will see fees for regulated child-care drop to an average of $10 a day by March 31, 2026.

The province also announced this morning there will be 1,500 new not-for-profit child-care spaces beginning this fall.

Public Health is warning about potential exposure to COVID-19 on another flight to Halifax.

The Westjet flight from Toronto landed in Halifax shortly after 7:00 on the night of January 9^th.

Passengers in rows 2 to 8 and seats A, B, C and D are required to immediately isolate and follow the instructions for close contacts based on their vaccination status and whether they have symptoms.

The instructions can be found on the Health Authority’s website, nshealth.ca.

The price of gas went up again, overnight.

Gas increased by 1.5 cents a litre and now goes for a minimum of $1.42.9 in Cape Breton.

Diesel took a big jump of 4.8 cents a litre.

The minimum price for a litre of diesel on the Island is now $1.49.6.

Five more people in the province have been admitted to hospital because of COVID-19.

The province says another five people have been released and there’s now a total of 59 people admitted to hospital because of COVID.

Seven of those people are in intensive care.

The province is also reporting another outbreak at the Northside General Hospital.

It says fewer than 10 patients are affected.

There are 542 new cases of COVID-19 being reported today.

271 of those cases are in the Central Zone, with 130 in the Eastern Zone, 42 in the Northern Zone and 99 in the Western Zone.