Two Nova Scotians with COVID-19 died at home due to complications related to the virus, provincial officials said Tuesday.
Both the people, a woman in her 50s and a man in his 70s, lived in the central zone, which includes the Halifax area.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said in one of the cases, health officials only learned the person had contracted COVID-19 after they died. He did not say when the two people died.
“This is indeed a very sad day,” Strang said at an afternoon briefing with Premier Iain Rankin.
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The province is waiving any ambulance fees for people with the virus who need to get to hospital in an emergency.
“Do not struggle at home,” Rankin said.
There are currently 37 people with COVID-19 in hospital, including eight in intensive care.
Nova Scotia’s intensive care units are treating more COVID-19 patients now than at any other point since the pandemic started, and the head of the provincial health authority has said hospitals are preparing to get busier yet.
Strang agreed the province is at a critical point. Not only are more people entering hospital with the virus, but patients with chronic issues are having surgeries delayed.
“We have a path, we’re at a crossroads. We put things in place — now, what path we end up on actually depends on how people comply with that,” Strang said.
While cases continue to remain high, Strang noted there’s usually a two- to three-week delay before a spike in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths.
He said the Nova Scotia health-care system is now planning for that and figuring out how to deal with any fallout.
The province reported 153 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. There are 139 cases in central zone, 10 in eastern zone, three in northern zone and one in western Zone.
There are 1,060 active cases in the province. Cases range in age from under 10 to over 90
Nova Scotia health authority labs completed 19,174 tests on Monday, the highest daily number yet.
People line up for rapid testing at the convention centre in downtown Halifax. (Robert Short/CBC)
Strang said officials will assess things next week, but it’s a “safe assumption” restrictions will be extended.
Police have handed out dozens of fines, which now start at $2,000 per person, in just the past few days alone. Since the start of the pandemic last year nearly 800 tickets have been issued for violations of the Health Protection Act.
At a COVID-19 briefing on Monday, Strang said the new daily cases are still somewhat skewed by a backlog in processing tests and entering data at the health authority’s microbiology labs. On Tuesday, he said the backlog has been cleared.
Testing options
Lab testing guidelines were modified last week when the backlog was announced. Previously available to all Nova Scotians 16 and up, lab tests are now limited to:
Anyone with symptoms.
Anyone who has been notified that they are a contact of a known case, even if they are asymptomatic.
Anyone who has been at a publicly listed exposure location, or has been directly notified by Public Health they have been to an exposure site. This includes anyone who is asymptomatic, and those classified as a low-risk exposure.
Anyone who has travelled outside Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, even if they are asymptomatic.
Anyone who has been scheduled to undergo testing before surgery.
Rapid testing is still available to everyone else at pop-up sites across the province. This week, rapid testing is scheduled in Halifax, Sydney, Bridgewater and Membertou.
Vaccine progress
As of Monday, 325,218 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Nova Scotia, including 36,687 second doses. That means about 33 per cent of the population has received at least one dose, and about 3.7 per cent have received both doses.
Vaccine eligibility is opening up by age and the province plans to open access to everyone 16 and up by the end of June, contingent on supply.
Currently, those 50 or older are eligible to book an appointment for any of the approved shots — Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna or AstraZeneca-Oxford — while those 40-49 are eligible for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, only.
Appointments are being booked online and by phone at 1-833-797-7772.
Atlantic Canada case numbers
Newfoundland and Labrador reported four new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, at least three of them related to travel. There are still 56 active cases in the province.
New Brunswick reported four new cases Tuesday, and 850 people across the province in self-isolation. There are 141 active cases.
P.E.I. announced one new case Tuesday and the number of active cases has fallen to seven.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
