New Brunswick is announcing two more deaths related to COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the total number of people who have died of the disease in the province to 74.
The latest deaths involve a person in their 70s in the Moncton region (Zone 1) and a person in their 80s in the Fredericton region (Zone 3).
“I encourage all New Brunswickers to keep these people’s loved ones in their thoughts,” said Premier Blaine Higgs in a news release. “We must all follow the rules and stay within our single household this Thanksgiving weekend to slow the spread and prevent future tragedies from occurring.”
“I send my heartfelt sympathies to the loved ones of the people who have lost their lives to COVID-19,” added Dr. Jennifer Russell, chief medical officer of health. “As we spend time with the people in our single household this weekend, please take steps to protect the people closest to you. Wear a mask in indoor public spaces, wash your hands frequently and book an appointment to get fully vaccinated if you have not already done so.”
The province has reported 18 COVID-19 related deaths since Tuesday, Sept. 28.
73 NEW CASES SUNDAY
Health officials in New Brunswick are also reporting 73 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, along with 38 recoveries, as the total number of active cases in the province rises to 962.
According to health officials, 45 of Sunday’s 73 new cases, or 62 per cent, are not fully vaccinated. Fiftight een cases, or 11 per cent, are partially vaccinated, and 20 cases, or 27 per cent, are fully vaccinated.
The province says there are currently 53 people in hospital in New Brunswick due to COVID-19, with 22 in an intensive care unit. Of those currently in hospital, 42 are unvaccinated, three are partially vaccinated, and eight are fully vaccinated.
A senior’s advocate in the province says those hospitalization numbers are especially concerning.
“We’re all being punished for the people who are out being, should be, responsible this is an important occasion, Thanksgiving it’s just as important as Christmas, in fact it could be more important because sometimes at Christmas time we can’t get together because of the weather,” said Cecile Cassista, executive director of the New Brunswick Coalition for Seniors.
THANKSGIVING WEEKEND GATHERING LIMITS
New Brunswickers are being asked to limit their Thanksgiving weekend gatherings to the people living in their household.
Sunday was a busy day at Isaac Way’s restaurant in downtown Fredericton, with patrons flocking to enjoy a turkey dinner outside their household bubble, while staying within the province’s restrictions.
“It’s great for business most years thanksgiving weekend is pretty quiet, everybody goes home to families and has thanksgiving at home but this year with our regulations we’re able to welcome them into the restaurant it’s a lot busier, we have lots of reservations,” said Kristin Thurlow, Co-Owner/Manager of Isaac’s Way.
With everyone in a Thanksgiving holiday weekend lockdown, restaurants are one of the only ways people of separate households can gather.
“So I am actually living in Saint John at the moment so I had plans to come home to Fredericton to see my family and things changed obviously, with the new COVID protocols so we had to resort to brunch at a restaurant so we’re making that work,” said Shelby Harnish, who took advantage of the vaccination record screening to eat out.
Public health says all New Brunswickers, including those who are not covered by the circuit breaker, must not have gatherings anywhere other than a place at which the law requires proof of vaccination with anyone they do not currently live with during the Thanksgiving long weekend, between 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8, and 11:59 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 11.
“We’re pretty happy that the government has made regulations for everyone’s safety and having people able to gather in a place that has identification, vaccination records, and is controlled that people can get together,” added Thurlow.
Public health says the household can be extended to include caregivers for any of those people, plus any parent, child, sibling, grandparent or grandchild of those people who requires support, along with any one additional person who lives alone at another address who requires support.
All businesses may remain open for regular operations but must follow measures listed under the mandatory order. This includes businesses that are not required to see proof of vaccination, such as hair salons, retail and grocery stores, and those that are required to request proof of vaccination, such as restaurants and entertainment venues. Children under 12 accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult will also be admitted.
COVID-19 CASE DATA
New Brunswick has had 5,160 cumulative cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
In total, 4,123 people have recovered and 74 people have died in the province from COVID-19.
Public health says a total of 489,917 COVID-19 tests have been processed since the start of the pandemic.
The number of cases are broken down by New Brunswick’s seven health zones:
Zone 1 – Moncton region: 1,445 confirmed cases (351 active cases)
Zone 2 – Saint John region: 476 confirmed cases (70 active cases)
Zone 3 – Fredericton region: 1,112 confirmed cases (215 active cases)
Zone 4 – Edmundston region: 1,233 confirmed cases (154 active case)
Zone 5 – Campbellton region: 506 confirmed cases (90 active cases)
Zone 6 – Bathurst region: 260 confirmed cases (50 active cases)
Zone 7 – Miramichi region: 128 confirmed cases (32 active cases)
Nineteen new cases were reported in the Moncton region (Zone 1) involving:
five people age 19 and under
two people in their 20s
two people in their 30s
four people in their 40s
two people in their 50s
one person in their 60s
one person in their 70s
one person in their 80s
one person age 90 and over
Thirteen cases are under investigation and six are contacts of previously confirmed cases.
Ten new cases were reported in the Saint John region (Zone 2) involving:
two people age 19 and under
two people in their 20s
two people in their 30s
two people in their 50s
two people in their 60s
Seven cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases and three are under investigation.
Thirteen new cases were reported in the Fredericton region (Zone 3) involving:
three people age 19 and under
one person in their 20s
one person in their 40s
three people in their 50s
three people in their 60s
one person in their 70s
one person in their 80s
Eleven cases are under investigation and two are contacts of previously confirmed cases.
Eight new cases were reported in the Edmundston region (Zone 4) involving:
two people age 19 and under
one person in their 20s
one person in their 30s
four people in their 50s
Four cases are under investigation and four are contacts of previously confirmed cases.
Nineteen new cases were reported in the Campbellton region (Zone 5) involving:
four people age 19 and under
four people in their 20s
four people in their 30s
one person in their 40s
three people in their 50s
three people in their 60s
Fourteen cases are contacts of previously confirmed cases and five are under investigation.
Two new cases were reported in the Bathurst region (Zone 6), involving one person age 19 and under, and one person in their 40s. One case is under investigation and the other is a contact of a previously confirmed case.
VACCINE UPDATE
As of Sunday, 81.4 per cent of New Brunswickers age 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 90.6 per cent have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
In total, 1,197,985 vaccine doses have been administered in New Brunswick.
All eligible New Brunswickers can book their second dose appointments now for a date that is at least 28 days after their first dose.
POTENTIAL PUBLIC EXPOSURES
A full list of potential COVID-19 exposure notifications in New Brunswick can be found on the province’s website.
Anyone with symptoms of the virus, as well as anyone who has been at the site of a possible public exposure, is urged to request a test online or call Tele-Care at 811 to get an appointment.
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.
