WATERLOO —
Health officials in Waterloo Region recorded 12 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, marking the lowest daily increase since late October.
Among the new cases, nine were linked to Monday and the remainder were from previous reporting periods.
Tuesday’s update marks the lowest daily total since Oct. 27, when nine cases were reported.
Active cases also dipped in the past day, down by 39 to 318.
The new cases bring Waterloo Region’s cumulative caseload to 17,802, including 17,201 resolved infections and 272 deaths.
Some 522,439 COVID-19 tests have been processed since the pandemic began. As of Tuesday, Waterloo Region’s positivity rate sits at 5.2 per cent, down from 5.7 per cent on Friday.
The reproductive rate of the virus in the community dropped from 0.9 on Friday to 0.8 on Tuesday.
STEP 2 ANNOUNCEMENT EXPECTED THIS WEEK
Speaking at the Region of Waterloo Board of Health meeting on Tuesday night, medical officer of health Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said the region is seeing positive signs in COVID-19 trends but that the situation remains precarious.
“We are moving in the right direction,” she said, adding more information about a potential move to Step 2 will be announced in the coming days.
“The additional two weeks in Step 1 was a strategic decision to protect our community,” Dr. Wang said. “I expect to be able to share more on Step 2 later this week.”
She added the goal is to move into Step 3 along with the rest of the province.
HOSPITALIZATIONS, OUTBREAKS RISE
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 increased by two in the past 24 hours, up to 48. Of those, 24 are receiving treatment in area intensive care units.
Another three outbreaks were also declared in the past day. There are now 21 active outbreaks in Waterloo Region, with most in workplace or facility settings.
On Monday, Grand River Hospital declared outbreaks on both the Clinical Teaching Unit and in Food and Nutrition Services. Five cases have been linked to the two outbreaks.
The hospital says it is implementing enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols on the units.
“We’re still worried where hospitalizations are at,” said Lee Fairclough, the hospital lead for Waterloo-Wellington and the president of St. Mary’s General Hospital. “We do have outbreaks here at both hospitals and GRH and St. Mary’s and seeing outbreaks at retirement homes and congregate settings, so all of that we are watching and managing very carefully.”
MORE DELTA CASES CONFIRMED
Health officials confirmed another large batch of cases as variants of concern, bringing the total number of variant cases past the 4,000 mark.
A total of 4,012 cases have now been identified as variants of concern.
In Tuesday’s update, 83 more cases were confirmed as variants, with most logged as the Delta variant, with 82.
The region’s variant breakdown is as follows:
3,100 are the Alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom and originally known as B.1.1.7
12 are the Beta variant, originally detected in South Africa and previously referred to as B.1.315
61 are the Gamma variant, initially discovered in Brazil and labelled as P.1
525 are the Delta variant, first found in India and previously called B.1.617
314 cases have had a mutation detected, but have not yet had a variant strain confirmed
VACCINE ROLLOUT CONTINUES
Health partners across Waterloo Region administered another 8,281 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Monday, bringing the total number of jabs put into arms to 598,008.
More than 79.5 per cent of adults have now received at least one dose, while more than 43 per cent of residents 18 and older are fully vaccinated.
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.
