For eight straight days, Nova Scotia has set record-high COVID-19 single-day case increases.
On Thursday, the province reported 689 new cases of COVID-19, the highest single-day case increase since the onset of the pandemic.
The previous record for the highest single-day case increase was on Wednesday, when 537 new infections were announced.
Public health says 498 of Thursday’s cases are in the province’s Central zone, 55 are in the Eastern zone, 79 cases are in the Northern zone, and 57 are in the Western zone.
As of Thursday, public health says there is an estimated 3,844 active cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.
Fourteen people are currently in hospital, four of whom are in intensive care.
The province did not provide an update on recoveries on Thursday.
On Wednesday, 11 schools in the province were notified of an exposure at their school.
A full list of school exposures is available online.
Due to an increase in testing and positive cases, public health says it is experiencing some delays in follow-up and will try to contact anyone confirmed positive by the lab within 24 hours.
All cases will be asked to contact their close contacts. This may be the only contact a positive case has with public health.
Detailed follow-ups are being prioritized to support contact tracing in schools, long-term care, health-care facilities, correctional facilities, shelters and other group settings.
On Wednesday, Nova Scotia Health Authority’s labs completed 8,181 tests.
OUTBREAK DECLARED AT SHELBURNE NURSING HOME
Public health has declared an outbreak at Roseway Manor – a nursing home in Shelburne.
Two staff members have tested positive for the virus. Health officials say neither of the positive cases are in hospital or have had contact with residents.
All staff at the facility are fully vaccinated, and 98 per cent of residents are fully vaccinated and have had a booster shot.
NO NEW CASES AT DARTMOUTH GENERAL HOSPITAL
Public health says there are no new positive cases at the Dartmouth General Hospital, where fewer than five patients have tested positive for the virus.
Health officials say all patients are being closely monitored.
“Infection prevention and control measures are being put in place, and NSHA is currently testing all patients and staff identified as a close contact. NSHA will provide a further update when more information is available,” read a release from the province on Thursday.
UPDATE ON ST. MARTHA’S REGIONAL HOSPITAL
Health officials say no new cases of COVID-19 have been identified at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S.
Public health says there are still fewer than five positive cases connected to the hospital.
As a precaution, NSHA is testing identified close contacts, and other infection prevention and control measures are being put in place.
Testing will also be made available for all staff and doctors on site who want to get tested.
NO NEW CASES AT PARKSTONE ENHANCED CARE
There have been no new cases of COVID-19 identified at Parkstone Enhanced Care – a nursing home in Halifax.
To date, a total of two residents and one staff member at the facility have tested positive. No one is in hospital.
All staff and residents are fully vaccinated, and all eligible residents have had a booster shot, according to public health.
UDPATE ON OUTBREAK AT HALIFAX INFIRMARY
Public health says there are no new cases connected to the outbreak at the Halifax Infirmary side of the QEII Health Sciences Centre.
To date, there have been fewer than five patients test positive for the virus.
“All patients are being closely monitored and other infection prevention and control measures are being put in place,” wrote public health.
UPDATE ON PARKLAND ANTIGONISH
There are no new cases of COVID-19 at Parkland Antigonish – a seniors’ living community in Antigonish.
To date, three residents and two staff members have tested positive for the virus. No one is in hospital and all staff and residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
VACCINE UPDATE
As of Thursday, 1,758,286 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered.
Of those, 793,489 Nova Scotians have received their second dose, and 105,019 eligible Nova Scotians have received a third dose.
CHANGES TO DAILY COVID-19 REPORTS
Nova Scotia says beginning Thursday, the province is changing how it reports daily COVID-19 data due to delays in data entry caused by the recent high number of infections.
For most of the pandemic, Nova Scotia has reported data from Panorama – public health’s disease information system.
Since Dec. 10, the province has shifted to reporting the number of positive lab test results to more accurately reflect the situation in the province, given the backlog in the Panorama data entry.
The province says, although this data is more accurate overall, it does contain a small number of duplicate results due to some people getting tested more than once.
“Starting today, duplicate results will be removed from reported case numbers. Each case will only be counted when the person first tests positive,” wrote the province in a release. “The data released Monday through Friday will include the number of positive cases after excluding duplicate lab results, the breakdown by zone, estimated active case count, and immunization data and testing data.”
On weekends and holidays, officials say the number of positive cases will be reported based on raw lab data, which may include a small number of duplicates, with a breakdown by zone.
“Following weekends and holidays, the number of cases will be updated with the duplicates removed. There will not be reports on Christmas Day or New Year’s Day,” wrote public health.
Also beginning Thursday, the COVID-19 dashboard will temporarily include the estimated number of active cases and some data will be removed.
“These reporting changes are expected to be temporary and last four to six weeks. The Province will then resume reporting Panorama data,” wrote public health.
COVID ALERT APP
Canada’s COVID-19 Alert app is available in Nova Scotia.
The app, which can be downloaded through the Apple App Store or Google Play, notifies users if they may have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
LIST OF SYMPTOMS
Anyone who experiences a fever or new or worsening cough, or two or more of the following new or worsening symptoms, is encouraged to take an online test or call 811 to determine if they need to be tested for COVID-19:
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.
