TORONTO —
Keep your holiday gatherings small is the messaging from Canada’s top doctor, as new federal modelling points to a resurgence in COVID-19 infections in the coming weeks that could be further accelerated should the new Omicron variant take over.
The Delta variant remains the dominant strain in Canada and around the world, said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, but the spread of Omicron is increasing globally. In Canada, there are early signs of community spread.
While most of the 87 confirmed Omicron cases in Canada have been traced back to international travel and close contacts, cases with no known links to travel are starting to be reported, Tam noted during a press conference on Friday.
“Keeping private gatherings small is quite important at this point while we learn more,” said Tam.
“Gathering with a smaller number of people in well ventilated places – all of those layers of protection … can still enable us to have a good time while being safer and being precautionary.”
Travelling within Canada would be the “better choice” versus international travel, she added.
The current rise in new cases is primarily driven by Ontario and Quebec, with both provinces experiencing numbers not seen since spring. Should transmission rates increase by 15 per cent, or if Omicron takes hold under current levels of transmission, then Canada could see cases skyrocket to record levels above 10,000 cases before January, modelling charts show.
“We must approach the coming weeks with an abundance of caution and at the same time, we must be prepared to act quickly to control the spread at the first sign of rapidly accelerating cases,” said Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo.
So far, all documented cases involving Omicron in Canada have been asymptomatic or mild, and there is considerable uncertainty around the variant’s ability to evade immunity and cause severe illness, health officials said, but a rapid increase in cases could still strain the health-care system.
“That model doesn’t model the severity. But even if the proportion of those who get Omicron who gets severely ill is tiny – if you get enough cases, you still have enough severe outcomes to impact your hospitals and your ICUs,” Tam said.
Canada’s Rt, or effective reproduction number, has been back above one for the last five weeks, indicating that the epidemic is in a growth pattern, federal data shows, with the Delta variant accounting for more than 90 per cent of the cases.
OMICRON UNCERTAINTY
Despite the many unknowns around the Omicron variant, including whether it poses a higher or lower risk of severe illness and death, preliminary data indicates that it has the potential to spread faster than the highly transmissible Delta variant.
In South Africa, cases have climbed at a much faster rate with Omicron compared to previous waves.
While vaccines are expected to still provide protection against the new variant, scientists are still investigating the level of effectiveness.
“The Omicron variant of concern is a cruel reminder that a global epidemiological situation can change quickly. We all need to be prepared for that,” said Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos in a press conference on Friday.
Source: Public Health Agency of Canada
VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS
With 80 per cent of the eligible population in Canada fully vaccinated, infection rates remain highest among children under the age of 12, a group that only recently became eligible for shots.
The size of outbreaks in schools and childcare settings remain small, however, at fewer than five cases, Tam said. In total, there have been over 380,000 reported cases in children up to 19 years of age, with less than one per cent involving severe illness.
Tam and Njoo continued to encourage vaccinating children aged five and up and providing boosters for those aged 18 and over, emphasizing that vaccines along with protective health measures will help control transmission and would significantly reduce risks of resurgence in 2022.
The risk of being hospitalized remains significantly lower for those who are fully vaccinated individuals, officials reiterated, noting that those who are unvaccinated between the ages of 12 and 59 are 32 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated. For those above 60, they are 16 times more likely to be hospitalized.
Despite the warning about the coming weeks, Tam said that vaccines have provided substantial protection from infection and severe outcomes and dampened the impact of the delta-driven wave this past fall.
“This time last year, we were experiencing double the number of daily cases and more than double the number of people with COVID-19 being treated in hospitals and in intensive care daily. Most importantly, daily reported deaths are 82 per cent lower than this time last year,” Tam said.
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.
