OTTAWA —
Ottawa Public Health says 62 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19, another jump compared to previous days.
OPH reported 48 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 16 on Tuesday.
OPH said Thursday that there were 62 new positive test results in the city, lower than the 77 reported by Public Health Ontario, and that no new deaths were reported.
There have been 9,510 total lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa and 390 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
There are 646 new cases in Toronto, 502 in Peel, 263 in York Region and 173 in Windsor-Essex County, some of the province’s lockdown zones.
A provincewide shutdown will move Ottawa to lockdown status at 12:01 a.m. Dec. 26.
OPH also said there are 15 COVID-19 patients in the city’s hospitals, with none in intensive care. There were 18 people in hospitals on Wednesday.
Active cases are up to 349, from 329 on Wednesday. OPH says 8,771 people in Ottawa have had their COVID-19 cases resolve. Forty-two new recoveries were reported on Thursday.
OPH’s COVID-19 dashboard will not be updating on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1.
OTTAWA COVID-19 STATUS: ORANGE-RESTRICT
Ottawa remains in the “Orange-Restrict” level under the provincial reopening framework. Ottawa moved into the restriction level on Nov. 7.
A provincewide lockdown will move Ottawa into lockdown status as of 12:01 a.m. Dec. 26.
The “Orange-Restrict” level is for areas with a weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 people of between 25 and 39.9, a positivity rate between 1.3 per cent and 2.4 per cent and a reproduction number of 1 to 1.1.
Here is where Ottawa stands on those metrics currently, according to Ottawa Public Health:
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (previous seven days): 29.2
Positivity rate in Ottawa: 1.2 per cent (Dec. 14 to 20)
Reproduction Number: 0.97 (seven day average as of Dec. 23)
The “Yellow-Protect” level requires a weekly rate of new cases per 100,000 people of between 10 and 24.9, a positivity rate between 0.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent and a reproduction number of “approximately 1”, according to the province.
TESTING
Ontario health officials said 64,592 COVID-19 tests were performed across Ontario on Wednesday and 75,250 tests remain under investigation.
The Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce says 1,925 swabs were taken at assessment centres on Wednesday and local labs performed 5,919 tests.
There are 3,475 tests still in progress as of Dec. 24. The positivity rate for Ottawa during the week of Dec. 14 to 20 was 1.2 per cent.
The average turnaround from the time the swab is taken at a testing site to the result is 40 hours.
CASES OF COVID-19 AROUND THE REGION
Public Health Ontario is reporting the following in health units around eastern Ontario:
Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 30 new cases
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health: 3 new cases
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health: 7 new cases
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit: 5 new cases
Renfrew County and District Health Unit: 1 new case
The Quebec government reported nine new cases in the Outaouais region, which includes Gatineau.
INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS
Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at 21 institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.
A new outbreak was declared at the childcare centre attached to Terre-des-Jeunes school, which is also experiencing an outbreak.
There are four active community outbreaks, all linked to unidentified workplaces. OPH does not name which workplaces have outbreaks or how many cases are linked to each workplace outbreak.
To date, there have been 42 workplace outbreaks in Ottawa (4 active, 38 closed) accounting for 231 cases of COVID-19 and one death.
The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
École élémentaire catholique Terre-des-Jeunes
Grandir Ensemble child care at l’École Terre-des-Jeunes (NEW)
The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Association Intégration Sociale d’Ottawa – 21034
Besserer Place
Bridlewood Trails Retirement Home
Cité Parkway
Courtyards on Eagleson
Extendicare Medex
Extendicare New Orchard Lodge
Extendicare Starwood
Extendicare West End Villa
Group home – 27332
Madonna Care Community
Maison Accueil-Sagesse
Manotick Place Retirement Home
Maycourt Hospice
Montfort Hospital – 3C, 4C
Parkway House
Rudy Shenkman Hospice
Shelter – 27273
Village at the Glebe Retirement Residence
A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, a single confirmed, symptomatic case in a staff member, home daycare provider, or child triggers an outbreak.
Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).
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.
