Toronto is reporting nearly 800 new COVID-19 cases as the province’s death toll from the virus topped 4,000 on Wednesday.
Provincial health officials logged 2,139 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 43 more deaths on Wednesday, a notable increase compared to the 20 fatalities recorded on Tuesday.
The previous single-day high for deaths in the province during the second wave was on Dec. 10 when 45 people died.
At least 4,035 people infected with COVID-19 have now died in Ontario.
Of today’s new fatalities, 33 victims were 80 years old and over, six were between 60 and 79 years old, three were between 40 and 59 years old, and one was between 20 and 39.
Twenty-two of the fatalities were long-term care home residents, compared to only one a day ago.
There are currently 135 long-term care homes with an active outbreak of the virus across Ontario.
The province reported a record 2,275 new infections on Tuesday, due in part to a later cut-off time for when local public health units could submit their data to the province. The previous single-day record was on Dec. 10 when 1,983 cases were reported.
A total of 1,940 new cases were recorded on Monday, 1,677 on Sunday and 1,873 on Saturday.
According to the Ministry of Health’s data, more than 49,100 tests were processed in the last 24 hours, up from 39,566 a day ago.
There are currently 65,597 tests under investigation.
The seven-day rolling average now stands at 1,962 compared to 1,839 a week ago today.
Provincial health officials say there are 2,043 more recoveries from the virus in Ontario and 17,084 active cases.
Most of the new cases continue to be in the Greater Toronto Area, as Toronto, Peel Region and York are currently in a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
“Locally, there are 780 new cases in Toronto, 528 in Peel, 148 in York Region, 143 in Durham and 111 in Windsor-Essex County,” Health Minister Christine Elliott tweeted on Wednesday.
Toronto recorded 711 new infections a day ago. The previous single-day high in Toronto was on Dec. 1 when the city logged 727 cases.
Elsewhere in the GTA, Durham Region recorded 143 new cases, up from 92 a day ago, while Halton Region logged 55 new cases, down from 65 on Tuesday.
To date, there have been 146,535 cases of COVID-19 in Ontario since January and more than 125,400 recoveries.
Hospitals prepare surge capacity plans
The number of patients hospitalized for the virus continues to climb across the province, threatening the health-care system’s ability to effectively accommodate all patients.
There are currently 932 people hospitalized with the virus compared to 921 a day ago. Of those patients, 256 are in intensive care units and 157 are breathing with the help of a ventilator.
On Tuesday, the CEO of Ontario Health sent out a memo ordering hospitals in the province to prepare to activate their surge capacity plans within 48 hours in response to the spike in cases.
President Matt Anderson said the province has entered a “critical phase” of the pandemic where there is widespread community spread.
The memo calls for regions in the grey and red levels of the province’s tiered COVID-19 response framework to ensure at least 10 to 15 per cent surge capacity of staffed adult inpatient beds for COVID-19 within 48 hours.
In a statement from The Ontario Hospital Association, they say the current situation is “far more serious” than what occurred in the first wave.
“In late December and into January, hospitals appear increasingly likely to face a wave of seriously ill COVID patients that will almost certainly disrupt other acute care services and operations. The threat to Ontario’s hospitals risks being even worse if people gather in person over the holidays,” the statement reads.
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch spoke to CP24 this morning and reiterated that the health-care system won’t be able to “cope with the influx of COVID-19 patients and simultaneously care for everybody else.”
“In these high-burden areas they’ve got to make space for more and more and more patients because we are seeing very high rates of COVID-19 in the community and of course many people land in hospital, sadly some people land in the ICU and some people die,” Bogoch said.
Bogoch added that although Ontarians have started to receive COVID-19 vaccines this week the impact won’t be seen for some time.
“While vaccines are really truly on the horizon it’s going to be a few months before we really start to ramp up those vaccine programs to get everybody safe. We’re measuring that in months and quite frankly this hospital capacity issue is a problem from about a month ago and is continuing to be a problem and is expected to be a problem moving forward as well at least through January when we’re probably going to see a surge in cases related to the holiday season,” he said.
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.
