Ontario is reporting nearly 1,200 new cases of COVID-19 today as the rolling seven-day average of new infections continues to rise in the province.
Provincial health officials logged 1,185 new cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus today and another six deaths.
Today’s tally is down from the 1,631 new infections reported on Monday, although the province said yesterday’s case count was inflated due to a data reporting issue. The Ministry of Health did not disclose how many of Monday’s cases should have been included in previous totals.
The rolling seven-day average of new cases now stands at 1,187, up from 1,098 last week.
With 33,300 tests completed on Monday, today’s test positivity rate is now 3.7 per cent, a notable jump from 2.9 per cent one week ago.
Active cases are also on the rise in the province. There are now 11,223 active lab-confirmed infections of COVID-19 in Ontario, up from 10,546 seven days ago.
According to the province, nearly 10 per cent of all active cases today involve primary and secondary school students.
For the third day in a row, none of the six virus-related deaths confirmed in Ontario today involve residents of long-term care. Despite the uptick in new cases over the past week, the average number of virus-related deaths recorded per day has dropped to 12 today, down from 17 last Tuesday.
Of the new cases reported today, 343 are in Toronto, 235 are in Peel Region, and 105 are in York Region.
Virus-related hospitalizations are continuing to climb along with intensive care admissions. The number of people with COVID-19 who are receiving treatment in hospital is now 689, up from 677 last week. The province is reporting that there are now 290 patients with COVID-19 in the ICU, up from 284 last Tuesday.
Numbers released by individual local public health units indicate that there are now 834 COVID-19 patients in hospital.
Dr. Irfan Dhalla, a University of Toronto medical professor and vice-president at Unity Health Toronto, tweeted Tuesday that the number of patients with COVID-19 who are currently in the ICU is actually 344, an increase of 27 patients over the past 24 hours.
Speaking about the need to roll out vaccines to the most vulnerable groups as quickly as possible, Dr. Michael Warner, the medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital, told CP24 on Tuesday that he believes a third wave of the pandemic has already arrived in Ontario.
“Wave three, I believe, is upon us. ICU numbers are increased today. Case numbers are rising and a vaccination also buys people more freedom,” Warner said.
“So we need to make sure we prioritize the people who are most likely to get sick and die from COVID within Phase 2 (of the vaccination program) and make sure the people who could get COVID but almost certainly are going to survive are toward the end of the line so that we save the most lives.”
An estimated 943,533 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario to date. Many municipalities have begun inoculating their oldest residents and on Monday, the City of Toronto confirmed that it will open three mass immunization clinics next week to begin vaccinating people in the community who are over the age of 80.
The province said another 29 cases of the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, have been confirmed through full genome sequencing, bringing the total number of cases of the variant in Ontario to 908. Thousands of other cases in the province have screened positive for a variant but have not yet been officially confirmed as one of the three main variants of concern circulating in Ontario. Officials have estimated that approximately 40 per cent of all new infections in Ontario are variant cases.
The numbers used in this story are found in the Ontario Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Daily Epidemiologic Summary. The number of cases for any city or region may differ slightly from what is reported by the province, because local units report figures at different times.
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.
