Children can be vaccinated in schools or at community vaccination clinics, say healthy officials. (Lisa Leutner/The Associated Press)
Children ages five to 11 in Newfoundland and Labrador can receive the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine at mass vaccination clinics beginning Saturday, and appointments can be booked now.
“Barring any new and unexpected developments, this is the last major hurdle we need to get through in the COVID-19 marathon,” said Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province’s chief medical officer of health, at a media conference Tuesday afternoon.
The news comes after Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids age five to 11 on Friday.
Fitzgerald said Pfizer’s clinical trials have shown the vaccine to be 90.7 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection in children five to 11, and no serious side effects have been identified.
Health Minister John Haggie said the first shipment of the pediatric vaccine is expected to arrive within the next 48 hours, and by Friday the province should have enough to vaccinate all eligible children in N.L.
The vaccine will be available for children through schools and community clinics, and parents can choose their preferred option.
Fitzgerald said there are about 35,000 children in the province eligible for the vaccine.
“I strongly encourage parents and guardians of children in this age category to make the choice for your child to be vaccinated,” she said.
Rollout
Like the adult version of the vaccine, the pediatric version will be administered in two doses.
Haggie said parents should start getting notifications about the availability of the vaccine in the next day, with other reminders to follow.
“This is the final brick in the wall,” Haggie said.
Watch the full Nov. 23 update:
[embedded content]
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has recommended that children do not receive the COVID-19 vaccine within two weeks of receiving another vaccine, Haggie said.
He said the vaccines will be rolled out through the regional health authorities, the school district and the Department of Education. The regional health authorities will make announcements about vaccinations within schools on their websites, he said.
Children can be vaccinated through a community clinic beginning Saturday or through school beginning next week, and parents can choose whichever option is most convenient, said Haggie. Parents and guardians will need to sign a consent form before their child can be vaccinated in schools.
“There’s choice here,” he said.
Haggie noted that parents should make sure to select the option for children ages five to 11 if they are booking an appointment through a community vaccination clinic.
Safe and effective, say officials
No children have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Newfoundland and Labrador, but Fitzgerald pointed to instances across the country where children have entered the ICU due to COVID-19. She said the vaccine will help alleviate the more severe impact of the delta variant.
“We always say delta finds the unvaccinated,” she said.
Fitzgerald said the vaccine will help achieve a sense of normalcy for children and allow them to socialize safely.
“While kids are not as severely affected by COVID-19, they have been more severely affected by the pandemic itself,” she said.
“Barring any new and unexpected developments, this is the last major hurdle we need to get through in the COVID-19 marathon,” said Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province’s chief medical officer of health. (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador)
She noted that vaccinating children will help prevent the disease from spreading to adults, and provide a greater portion of the province’s population with immunity.
Modelling suggests that 90 per cent of the total population of Newfoundland and Labrador must be vaccinated in order to safely lift all public health restrictions, said Fitzgerald.
Dr. Natalie Bridger, a pediatric infectious disease physician, noted the effectiveness of other vaccines in children.
“In Newfoundland and Labrador we no longer have to worry about our children becoming paralyzed by polio. We almost never see cases of measles. We don’t see babies being born blind from congenital rubella anymore. This is all because of vaccines.”
She acknowledged that some parents may have reservations about vaccines, but said she is confident in the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine in children.
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.
