OTTAWA —
Ottawa Public Health says 86 more people in Ottawa have tested positive for COVID-19 and three more people have died.
Ottawa has now seen 16,107 total laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the first case was confirmed on March 11, 2020.
Three more deaths bring the pandemic death toll to 454 residents.
Public Health Ontario reported 1,791 new cases reported across Ontario. The province also reported 18 new deaths and 1,353 newly resolved cases on Sunday. Ontario reported 90 new cases in Ottawa on Sunday. Figures from OPH frequently differ from those provided by the province due to different data collection times for the respective daily reports.
No new variants of concern were confirmed as either B.1.1.7 or B.1.351 in Ottawa, but 45 more suspected variant cases have been reported. To date, Ottawa has seen 15 confirmed cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, two confirmed cases of the B.1.351 variant and 281 suspected variant cases of undetermined lineage.
Key statistics remained largely unchanged Sunday,with only slight movement in the incidence rate of new cases per 100,000 residents in the previous seven days and in the estimated reproduction number. The number of active cases continues to rise but the number of people in hospital has gone down.
The COVID-19 wastewater monitoring project a drop in concentration in its most recent data, after the viral signal remained relatively high through much of early March. The monitoring has not detected any discernible concentration of the B.1.1.7 variant beyond March 9, though the provincial government has confirmed seven cases in Ottawa since that time.
OTTAWA’S KEY COVID-19 STATISTICS
Ottawa is in “Red-Control” status under Ontario’s COVID-19 framework.
Ottawa Public Health data:
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (March 13-19): 49.8 (up from 49.7 on Saturday, down from 50.0 on Friday)
Positivity rate in Ottawa: 2.9 per cent (March 12-18)
Reproduction number: 1.05 (seven day average)
Reproduction values greater than 1 indicate the virus is spreading and each case infects more than one contact. If it is less than 1, it means spread is slowing.
The red-control threshold is a weekly incidence rate of 40 or more cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent or higher and a reproduction number of 1.2 or more.
The orange-restrict category of Ontario’s COVID-19 framework includes a weekly rate of cases per 100,000 between 25 to 39.9, a percent positivity of 1.3 to 2.4 per cent, and a reproduction number of approximately 1 to 1.1.
VACCINES IN OTTAWA
As of March 19:
Vaccine doses administered in Ottawa (first and second shots): 87,737 (up by 4,841 since Wednesday)
COVID-19 doses received (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna): 97,170
Ottawa Public Health received a shipment of 10,530 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on March 15. A shipment of 6,100 doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived on March 13.
*OPH says staff were able to extract additional doses out of several vials, which were given to residents. In a statement on its dashboard, OPH said, “Vaccine inventory is based on an expected 5 dose per vial supply. Occasionally, an additional dose (6th dose) is successfully extracted and administered to clients.”
HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA
There are 19 people currently in Ottawa-area hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses, down from 23 on Saturday. Five people remain in intensive care.
ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA
Ottawa Public Health is reporting an increase in active COVID-19 cases in Ottawa. The number of people with known active cases surpassed 700 on Saturday for the first time since late January.
There are 736 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Friday, up from 629 active cases on Saturday.
Seventy-six more Ottawa residents have recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. Ottawa Public Health reports 14,917 resolved cases of COVID-19 in the capital.
The number of active cases is the number of total cases of COVID-19 minus the numbers of resolved cases and deaths. A case is considered resolved 14 days after known symptom onset or positive test result.
COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY
0-9 years old: Four new cases (1,234 total cases)
10-19 years-old: 13 new cases (2,015 total cases)
20-29 years-old: 21 new cases (3,518 total cases)
30-39 years-old: 15 new cases (2,284 total cases)
40-49 years-old: 18 new cases (2,074 total cases)
50-59 years-old: Five new cases (1,930 total cases)
60-69-years-old: Six new cases (1,161 total cases)
70-79 years-old: One new case (702 total cases)
80-89 years-old: One new case (717 total cases)
90+ years old: Two new cases (469 total cases)
Unknown: Zero new cases (3 cases total)
COVID-19 TESTING
Ontario health officials say 49,233 COVID-19 tests were completed provincewide on Saturday.
On Friday, the Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce said 2,265 swabs were processed at local assessment centres on Thursday and labs performed 6,224 tests. The average positivity rate for the week of March 12 to 18 was 2.9 per cent.
The next update from the Ottawa COVID-19 Testing Taskforce will be released Monday.
COVID-19 CASES ACROSS THE REGION
Eastern Ontario Health Unit: 18 new cases
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington: 12 new cases
Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: 31 new cases
Renfrew County and District Health Unit: 0 new cases
Outaouais (Gatineau and western Quebec): 53 new cases
INSTITUTIONAL OUTBREAKS
Ottawa Public Health is reporting COVID-19 outbreaks at institutions in Ottawa, including long-term care homes, retirement homes, daycares, hospitals and schools.
Outbreaks ended at Holy Spirit Elementary School and a local shelter.
New outbreaks were declared at Arc-en-Ciel, Horizon-Jeunesse, Gisèle-Lalonde and Henry Larsen schools.
There are four active community outbreaks: One is linked to a warehouse and one is linked to a multi-unit dwelling, one is linked to a construction workplace, and one is linked to a health workplace.
The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Rodnichok Daycare (March 1)
École élémentaire publique Julie-Payette
École élémentaire catholique Riverside South II (March 12)
École secondaire catholique Pierre Savard (March 13)
The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Shelter (Jan. 26)
The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (Feb. 19)
Extendicare Laurier Manor LTCH (Feb. 25)
Madonna Care Community (Feb. 26)
Sarsfield Colonial Home (Feb. 27)
Group Home (March 3)
Perley-Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre – Gatineau Building (March 4)
St. Vincent Hospital (March 6)
Extendicare Medex LTCH (March 9)
Peter D. Clark LTCH (March 10)
Group Home (March 11)
Lord Lansdowne RH (March 11)
Amica Westboro Park RH (March 12)
University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 12)
Chapel Hill RH (March 13)
The Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus (March 13)
St. Patrick’s Home (March 14)
Osgoode Care Centre (March 15)
St. Vincent Hospital (March 15)
Carlingview Manor (March 16)
University of Ottawa Heart Institute (March 16)
Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital (March 18)
Portobello Retirement Residence (March 18)
Extendicare West End Villa (March 19)
A single laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home or shelter triggers an outbreak response, according to Ottawa Public Health. In childcare settings, a single confirmed, symptomatic case in a staff member, home daycare provider, or child triggers an outbreak.
Under provincial guidelines, a COVID-19 outbreak in a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff in a school with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the school (including transportation and before or after school care).
Two staff or patient cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a specified hospital unit within a 14-day period where both cases could have reasonably acquired their infection in hospital is considered an outbreak in a public hospital.
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.
