Newly approved rapid tests will be pivotal in helping health authorities rein in rising novel coronavirus numbers in Canada, the country’s deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said Tuesday.
The new Panbio COVID-19 Antigen rapid test, which is the first of its kind to be authorized in Canada, can be analyzed on-site without additional equipment or a laboratory setting, and can produce results within 20 minutes.
While it may not be as accurate as the “gold standard” real-time PCR test, which are done in medical labs, Njoo said it can be a complement to a comprehensive testing strategy and allow health-care workers to “save the PCR test for those where you actually have sick people and you need to get the diagnosis right.”
Antigen tests work by detecting specific proteins found on the surface of the virus, as opposed to searching for the virus itself.
Remote work sites and crowded workplaces like meat-packing facilities will benefit from antigen testing, Njoo said, adding that it would make it easier to identify asymptomatic carriers of the virus and contact trace those who may have been exposed.
“There’s lots of other possibilities in certain outbreak settings where you need to at least start the rapid public health action,” he said.
“You could be using the rapid antigen test to quickly identify those who might have been exposed and maybe are actually infected with the virus.”
1:11 Coronavirus: 10% positivity rate ‘very worrying’ because it indicates high community transmission, Njoo says
Coronavirus: 10% positivity rate ‘very worrying’ because it indicates high community transmission, Njoo says
Anita Anand, minister of public services and procurement, also announced Tuesday that Canada signed an agreement to purchase up to 20.5 million of the antigen rapid tests.
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To date, the Canadian government has approved three other producers who have developed successful rapid point-of-care tests for COVID-19.
In a release, Public Services and Procurement Canada said that includes Abbott Rapid Diagnostics, which will supply up to 7.9 million ID NOW rapid tests in addition to the Panbio COVID-19 Antigen rapid tests. Biomérieux Canada “will supply up to 699,750 test kits,” while Inter Medico will supply “up to 1.2 million GeneXpert rapid tests,” the release said.
“In addition, the federal government has procured enough swabs, re-agent and other materials to conduct 200,000 tests per day in Canada for at least the remainder of the year,” Anand said, adding the country was on track to buy more rapid tests in the coming weeks.
The procurement minister said the point-of-care tests offered part of a solution to persistent challenges faced by the government to scale up laboratory capacity to process the increasing number of samples and avoid backlogs.
“Testing is a key pillar of Canada’s response to COVID-19 and that’s why Health Canada has prioritized the review of all types of COVID-19 tests. These antigens tests will have a role to play in avoiding large cluster outbreaks, when results are needed quickly to avoid further spread of the virus,” Anand said.
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The news comes as Canada struggles to control rising case numbers, with several regions already undergoing a second wave of the virus.
Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Tuesday around 71,000 people are currently being tested in Canada each day, with 2.5 per cent of the population testing positive.
1:00 Coronavirus: New cases in Ontario, Quebec make up 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases in Canada, Dr. Tam says
Coronavirus: New cases in Ontario, Quebec make up 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases in Canada, Dr. Tam says
On average, she said 1,951 new cases were being reported daily within the last seven days, noting an “upward trend” in the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19. Tam said an average of 613 people were hospitalized from the virus on any given day with the last week, with 16 deaths being reported daily.
On Monday, she said 80 per cent of new cases were coming from Quebec and Ontario, the two provinces hit hardest by the pandemic.
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In Toronto, one of Ontario’s most densely populated cities, Njoo confirmed more than 10 per cent of tests taken were coming back positive in certain pockets, indicating high levels of community transmission.
Both health minister Patty Hajdu and Njoo called the number “alarming,” with the deputy chief public health officer saying public health authorities needed to take “whatever steps are necessary” to increase contact tracing, identify high-risk settings and reduce transmission.
“It’s very alarming,” Hajdu said.
“Of course, the report is around specific neighbourhoods in Toronto. But we know that people don’t just stay in their neighbourhood. People move about and bring the virus with them.”
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.
