“Bars: really not good, really not good,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said. “We really have got to stop that.” Bars have indeed been proven to be a source of COVID spread, according to the CDC, along with indoor restaurants that have poor ventilation and gyms. But according to one new study out of the U.K., they are not always the single worst spreader of COVID-19. “You will be interested to know that recent research from Public Health England, based on the NHS Test and Trace app, has shown that the most common place people visited in the few days before testing positive to COVID, was not a pub or a bar,” says Dr. Deborah Lee. Read on to see what was the worst, in this list ranked from places responsible for the least spread to the most spread—and to ensure your health and the health of others, don’t miss these Sure Signs You’ve Already Had Coronavirus. 1 Restaurant or Cafe – 1.0% Despite the NHS Test and Trace app finding only a small spread of COVID coming from U.K. restaurants or cafes, here in America, Dr. Fauci recommends you eat outdoors, get takeout or have food delivered. “I feel badly about restaurants losing business,” Fauci told CNN. “And I feel it’s almost a neighborly obligation to keep neighborhood restaurants afloat.” The CDC says you’re at “highest risk” if you’re enjoying “on-site dining with indoor seating. Seating capacity not reduced and tables not spaced at least 6 feet apart.” Lowest risk would be: “Food service limited to drive-through, delivery, take-out, and curb-side pick up.” 2 Gym – 1.1% The CDC have tracked COVID spread to the gym; less so in the U.K. As COVID is spread via droplets, an environment where people are exhaling strenuously, even with masks, can result in spread. “On average across metro areas, full-service restaurants, gyms, hotels, cafes, religious organizations and limited-service restaurants produced the largest predicted increases in infections when reopened,” reports a study in Nature. 3 General Practice – 1.1% Your family doctor is an essential resource during a pandemic. Just don’t visit him unless you have to. Although the U.K. study found only a small percentage of COVID cases tracked back to the GP, the Mayo Clinic recommends: “Before you make an appointment, call the clinic or check its website to find out what’s being done to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.” While there, social distance, avoid frequently touched surfaces and of course wear a mask. 4 Household Fewer Than Five – 1.2% “Household transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is common and occurs early after illness onset,” says the CDC. “Persons should self-isolate immediately at the onset of COVID-like symptoms, at the time of testing as a result of a high risk exposure, or at time of a positive test result, whichever comes first. All household members, including the index case, should wear masks within shared spaces in the household.” 5 Hospitality – 1.5% Needless to say, the many people going in and out of hotels raises the risk. “Hotels or multi-unit guest lodgings (e.g., bed and breakfasts), staying at a family member’s or friend’s home or a house or cabin with people that are not in your household (e.g., vacation rentals)” are dubbed quite risky by the CDC, with “Shared spaces with many people and shared bathroom facilities (e.g., dormitory-style hostels)” judged “highest risk.” 6 Pub or Bar – 1.6% The low percentage of cases traced back to U.K. bars surprised experts and cheered bar-owners; the social centers have been a key point of contention during the country’s lockdown. Here in the United States, the public health experts remain firm. Fauci has said they should be closed, recently adding “so long as you subsidize and help the restaurateurs and the bar owners so that they don’t go down and essentially crash because of the economic strain…” CDC Chief Robert Redfield said you should consider closing bars to save lives. “The mortality concerns are real,” Redfield said. “And I do think unfortunately, before we see February, we could be close to 450,000 Americans [who] have died from this virus.” 7 Nursery Preschool – 1.8% If you’re a parent of a young one, you know that COVID transmission in schools depends a lot on the parents. “This school year will require schools and families to work together even more than before,” says the CDC. “Schools will be making changes to their policies and operations with several goals: supporting learning; providing important services, such as school meals, extended daycare, extracurricular activities, and social services; and limiting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Teachers and staff can teach and encourage preventive behaviors at school. Likewise, it will be important for families to emphasize and model healthy behaviors at home and to talk to your children about changes to expect this school year.” 8 Warehouse – 2.2% No business has not been affected. “Amazon.com Inc. has temporarily closed a New Jersey warehouse after a spike there in asymptomatic Covid-19 cases, a rare move that comes as the company gears up for a final push in what’s widely expected to be a record holiday shopping season,” reported Bloomberg this week. (For the record, in the U.K.’s Test and Trace app, the similar Manufacture Engineering was separated and ranked 1.4%.)RELATED: 7 Tips You Must Follow to Avoid COVID, Say Doctors 9 College – 2.4% Here in the U.S.: “Tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases continue to emerge on college campuses. A New York Times survey of more than 1,900 American colleges and universities — including every four-year public institution and every private college that competes in N.C.A.A. sports — has revealed more than 397,000 cases and at least 90 deaths since the pandemic began,” reports the paper. (For the record, in the U.K.’s Test and Trace app, the similar University was separated and ranked 1.4%.) 10 Care Home – 2.8% Those in nursing homes are among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine—and not a moment too soon. The virus has ripped through these vulnerable communities, and continues to, with surges in Rhode Island, South Dakota and Pennsylvania—not to mention the many deaths in New York earlier this Spring. “You almost feel like a battle zone,” nursing home administrator Laura Wilson in South Dakota told the Center for Public Integrity. “We said, ‘You know, right now, we just need to survive.'” 11 Hospital – 3.6% In the early throes of the coronavirus, experts advised patients to stay at home unless their symptoms requires hospitalization. The same is basically true now. “If you have a fever, cough or other symptoms, you might have COVID-19. Most people have mild illness and are able to recover at home,” reports the CDC. “If you think you may have been exposed to COVID-19, contact your healthcare provider….If you have an emergency warning sign (including trouble breathing), get emergency medical care immediately.” 12 Primary School – 10.1% Schools for little ones have been shown to spread coronavirus, according to the NHS Test and Trace app. Here in the USA, Dr. Fauci has a different take: “Close the bars and keep the schools open,” Fauci said to host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week. “Obviously, you don’t have one size fits all. But as I said in the past, the default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school, or to get them back to school.” He said community spread was pegged to gatherings, not schools. 13 Secondary School – 12.7% Also known as junior high and high school in the States, secondary schools are the #2 spreader of COVID-19 in the U.K. according to the most recent data.RELATED: If You Feel This, You May Have Already Had COVID, Says Dr. Fauci 14 Supermarket – 18.3% This makes a certain amount of logical sense. “Supermarkets are one of the very few places that people can visit during lockdown so it is unsurprising that they feature strongly when people are asked where they have visited,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium. “Retailers continue to follow all safety guidance to make their premises COVID-secure.”Despite those efforts, fears remain. Researchers in one new study, published in BMJ Journal, zeroed in on a single store in Massachusetts in the Spring. “We found a considerable asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among grocery workers,” said the authors. “Employees with direct customer exposure were five times more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2.” That rate might be lower now that social distancing and face mask wearing have become more strictly enforced, but don’t risk it if you don’t have to. “It’s a simple message—get your food delivered where possible,” says Dr. Lee. 15 How to Survive This Pandemic As for yourself, follow Fauci’s fundamentals and help end this surge, no matter where you live—wear a face mask, social distance, avoid large crowds, don’t go indoors with people you’re not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, get vaccinated when it becomes available to you, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don’t visit any of these 35 Places You’re Most Likely to Catch COVID.
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.