Essential but forgotten? Youth working in grocery stores, cafés feel the strain.
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Canada’s confirmed count of COVID-19 cases passed the one-million mark on Saturday — 14 months after the country’s first known case was recorded — while the number of vaccine shots administered surpassed six million.
The federal government’s goal was to have six million doses arrive in Canada by the end of the first quarter of the year — a target it met last week.
“We’re expecting millions and millions more doses over the next weeks and months,” Procurement Minister Anita Anand told CBC News on Friday. She reiterated that 44 million vaccine doses are expected to arrive by the end of June.
When asked about the official number of cases, an infectious diseases specialist with Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., said, “It’s actually probably more than a million.”
“It’s anywhere from five to 10 times more than that, because a lot of the time, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, we weren’t actually catching a lot of the cases that were happening,” Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti told CBC News on Sunday.
“Many cases are mild and are not getting tested,” he said. “The point is, this is a respiratory virus … and their job is essentially to infect people, and they do so very very efficiently.”
The two milestones are emblematic of where the nation stands with COVID-19, ramping up its vaccination drive as more contagious variants of the virus fuel the pandemic’s third wave in several parts of Canada.
Alberta, for instance, is investigating what the province’s chief medical officer of health described as a “significant” outbreak of the P1 variant of concern, which is now the dominant strain in Brazil.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw said in a tweet that the outbreak can be traced back to a returning traveller.
“Health officials are working hard to limit future spread and reaching out directly to those at risk of exposure,” she said. “AHS (Alberta Health Services) will ensure that anyone at risk is isolated, offered testing twice and connected with supports if needed.”
WATCH | Should vaccines be redirected to Canada’s COVID-19 hot spots?
Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician, says Ontario’s new shutdown doesn’t get to the root of the problem. He says we need to focus our attention on vaccinating people at warehouses and at homes in hotspots rather than vaccinating by age groups. 7:16
Hinshaw said officials will provide an update on the investigation on Monday.
That province logged an estimated 1,100 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, roughly half of which are variants of concern.
Hinshaw said 35 per cent of the province’s active COVID-19 cases are due to those variants, which are more contagious and can cause more serious illness.
WATCH | Doctors bring COVID-19 vaccines to homebound seniors:
Ontario’s Covid-19 science table is pushing for more mobile vaccine units to vaccinate seniors in their homes after new data reveals that 25 per cent of Ontario seniors 75 and older have still not received their first shot because they’re either unwilling or unable to leave home for medical reasons. A look at two doctors leading the charge. 2:03
Meanwhile, the United States had administered 161,688,422 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 207,866,645 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The tally is for Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech, and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines, the agency said.
The CDC said 104,213,478 people had received at least one dose while 59,858,146 people are fully vaccinated as of Saturday.
What’s happening across Canada
Health officials in British Columbia on Saturday announced 2,090 new cases of COVID-19 in the last two days, but did not provide information about deaths, variants of concern or the number of active cases.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix again urged people to stay within their local health authority region to prevent the spread of the respiratory illness.
A total of 856,801 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in B.C. to date, including 87,455 second doses.
WATCH | 2 doctors on how to deal with Canada’s coronavirus 3rd wave:
Infectious disease specialists Dr. Lynora Saxinger and Dr. Zain Chagla discuss the latest restrictions in several provinces and how they’re feeling about where we are in the third wave. 7:54
More drive-thru sites are anticipated to open this week across the province.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority website said the Lloydminster site is expected to open on Sunday, the Saskatoon drive-thru site is anticipated to open on Monday and the Yorkton and Weyburn sites are anticipated to open Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the province has now administered more than 200,000 vaccine doses.
Ontario logged 3,009 new cases as a new provincewide “shutdown” took effect to try to curb soaring infection rates.
The restrictions force gyms and personal care services to close, but allow essential and non-essential retailers to remain open, with their capacities limited to 50 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.
WATCH | ICU doctor says Ontario’s ’emergency brake’ is not enough:
Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, says the current restrictions are not enough to protect people who are getting sick in the third wave of the pandemic. Warner says the provincial framework won’t stop young people from getting sick and ending up in intensive care units. With permission, Dr. Warner spoke of one patient in particular who was very ill. She has since died. 5:23
A group of physicians, infectious disease specialists and other health experts say the Quebec government needs to shut down the Montreal region, before the spread of coronavirus variants spirals out of control.
New Brunswick registered nine new cases, of which seven are in the hard-hit Edmundston region. Hundreds of residents of the region are scheduled to be vaccinated at community clinics over the weekend.
Nova Scotia saw four new infections, bringing the province’s active case total to 32.
In the Northwest Territories, an outbreak has been declared at the Diavik Diamond Mine about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife after a second worker tested positive for the virus within a week.
What’s happening around the world
As of Sunday morning, more than 130.8 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to a coronavirus tracking tool maintained by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll stood at more than 2.84 million.
In Europe, Pope Francis said Easter Sunday mass under pandemic precautions. Only 200 or so faithful were allowed inside St. Peter’s Basilica to celebrate mass and hear the Urbi et Orbi blessing.
Italian State Police vehicle is seen in an empty St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images)
Normally, thousands would gather outside in St. Peter’s Square, with more than 100,000 sometimes assembling to receive the Pope’s special Easter blessing after the mass.
But this year, like last year, crowds are banned from gathering in Italy, and at the Vatican. So Francis scheduled his noon Easter address on world affairs to be delivered from inside the basilica.
In South Asia, India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 12,485,509 by Sunday evening local time as 93,249 new cases were reported from across the country over the past 24 hours, according to figures released by the federal health ministry.
In addition, 513 new deaths were registered in the past 24 hours, taking the country’s death toll to 164,623.
The latest number of new daily confirmed cases marks a record high since late September of last year.
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.
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