Based on the changes in total cases by age, it appears two new cases were added in the last 24 hours, but two additional cases were removed from the total for a net change of zero cases.
To date, Ottawa has seen 27,730 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. No new deaths were reported Wednesday, leaving the city’s death toll from COVID-19 at 592 residents.
Eight more cases are considered resolved, dropping the number of known active cases below 30. There is one person in the hospital with COVID-19 and ICUs remain free of COVID-19 patients. The trendline for the estimated reproduction number, which measures how quickly the virus is spreading, has reversed course and plunged to 0.56. OPH reported an estimated R(t) of 1.03 on Sunday.
Across Ontario, officials reported 153 new cases and said seven more Ontarians have died due to COVID-19. Another 216 cases are considered resolved. The province removed a case from its total for Ottawa on Wednesday. Cases are sometimes removed from pandemic total when case management investigations reveal the individual who tested positive does not live in a public health unit’s area.
Around the region, Public Health Ontario added one new case in the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health region and one new case in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health region.
COVID-19 cases per 100,000 (July 6 to July 12): 2.7 (down from 2.8)
Positivity rate in Ottawa (July 7 to July 13): 0.8 per cent (down from 0.9 July 5-11)
Reproduction number (seven day average): 0.56 (down from 0.94)
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.
ACTIVE CASES OF COVID-19 IN OTTAWA
The number of known active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa is near the lowest it’s been since the first wave in 2020.
There are 25 active cases of COVID-19 in Ottawa on Wednesday, down from 33 on Tuesday.
OPH reported that eight more people recovered after testing positive for COVID-19. The total number of resolved cases of coronavirus in Ottawa is now 27,113.
The number of active cases is the number of total laboratory-confirmed 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 VACCINES IN OTTAWA
Ottawa Public Health updates vaccine numbers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. As of Wednesday:
Ottawa residents with 1 dose (12+): 752,233 (+3,200)
Ottawa residents with 2 doses (12+): 526,804 (+28,464)
Share of population 12 and older with at least one dose: 82 per cent
Share of population 12 and older fully vaccinated: 57 per cent
Total doses received in Ottawa: 1,160,812 (+28,080 Pfizer doses this week)
*Total doses received does not include doses shipped to pharmacies and primary care clinics, but statistics on Ottawa residents with one or two doses includes anyone with an Ottawa postal code who was vaccinated anywhere in Ontario.
HOSPITALIZATIONS IN OTTAWA
Ottawa Public Health is reporting one person in Ottawa hospitals with COVID-19 related illnesses.
There are no patients in the intensive care unit.
Hospitalizations (and ICU admissions) by age category:
0-9: 0
10-19: 1
20-29: 0
30-39: 0
40-49: 0
50-59: 0
60-69: 0
70-79: 0
80-89: 0
90+: 0
These data are based on figures from Ottawa Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, which refer to residents of Ottawa and do not include patient transfers from other regions.
VARIANTS OF CONCERN
Ottawa Public Health data*:
Total Alpha (B.1.1.7) cases: 6,817
Total Beta (B.1.351) cases: 405 (+2)
Total Gamma (P.1) cases: 34 (+1)
Total Delta (B.1.617.2) cases: 30 (+1)
Percent of new cases with variant/mutation in last 30 days: 65 per cent (-2)
Total variants of concern/mutation cases: 7,901 (+1)
Deaths linked to variants/mutations: 87
*OPH notes that that VOC and mutation trends must be treated with caution due to the varying time required to complete VOC testing and/or genomic analysis following the initial positive test for SARS-CoV-2. Test results may be completed in batches and data corrections or updates can result in changes to case counts that may differ from past reports.
COVID-19 CASES IN OTTAWA BY AGE CATEGORY
0-9 years old: One new case (2,293 total cases)
10-19 years-old: Zero new cases (3,565 total cases)
20-29 years-old: One case removed from total (6,231 total cases)
30-39 years-old: Zero new cases (4,236 total cases)
40-49 years-old: Zero new cases (3,643 total cases)
50-59 years-old: One new case (3,330 total cases)
60-69-years-old: Zero new cases (1,960 total cases)
70-79 years-old: Zero new cases (1,093 total cases)
80-89 years-old: One case removed from total (856 total cases)
90+ years old: Zero new cases (520 total cases)
Unknown: Zero new cases (3 cases total)
CASES OF COVID-19 AROUND THE REGION
Eastern Ontario Health Unit: Zero new cases
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health: One new case
Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Public Health: One new case
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit: Zero new cases
Renfrew County and District Health Unit: Zero new cases
Outaouais: Zero 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.
Active community outbreaks are:
No active community outbreaks
The schools and childcare spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
No outbreaks in child care and school spaces
The long-term care homes, retirement homes, hospitals, and other spaces currently experiencing outbreaks are:
Shelter A-18110 (June 13)
Group Home A-18641 (July 8)
As of April 7, two cases of COVID-19 in a resident or staff member of a long-term care home, retirement home with an with an epidemiological link, within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the facility is considered an outbreak in a long-term care home or retirement home. One laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19 in a staff member or resident of other institutions such as shelters, group homes, is considered an outbreak. In childcare settings, two children or staff or household member cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 within a 14-day period where at least one case could have reasonably acquired their infection in the childcare establishment is considered an outbreak in a childcare establishment.
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.
