So far, at least 107 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered by 78 countries around the world according to Our World in Data, a non-profit online scientific publication based at the University of Oxford. Of those doses, more than half were given in the United States (34 million), the European Union (14 million) and the United Kingdom (10 million).
Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic last year, world leaders and health experts, including the WHO, have called for fair and equitable access to tests, treatments and vaccines. As new vaccines are being approved and ordered, questions are still being raised about how millions of vaccines will be shipped to all parts of the globe.
What vaccines are available?
There are currently several vaccines being administered around the world and more are on the way. According to Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela, the former board chair of the United Nations-back vaccine alliance Gavi, this is the first time that this many vaccines have been developed in such a short period of time.
These vaccines vary in terms of their treatment methods, efficacy, dose requirements and storage temperature.
Despite reporting the highest efficacy rate of 95 percent, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a storage temperature of -70C, making distribution more difficult. In comparison, vaccines such as the Indian-developed Bharat Biotech Covaxin and the Chinese-developed Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines require simple refrigerators which make it much easier to manage wide-scale distribution.
Vaccine policies
In most countries, the first to be inoculated have been front-line workers, followed by those with severe and chronic diseases and the elderly. In countries like Israel and the United Arab Emirates, mass vaccinations drives for the general public are currently under way.
Indonesia, on the other hand, began its vaccine drive by inoculating young people first, including healthcare and public service workers, rather than the elderly.
Canada is implementing a policy to vaccinate the priority populations first, key workers and then the mass public.
In the US, Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said that the US will hopefully start vaccinating children by mid-2021. Testing is under way for children as young as 12. Dr Fauci explained if those tests were successful, they would be followed by another round of testing for children up to nine years old.
COVAX global vaccine initiative
COVAX, which is a global initiative led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the WHO, aims to provide global access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
With the COVAX agreement, 92 countries will receive up to 190 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Gavi aims to vaccinate 20 percent of countries that are low-middle income and unable to buy large quantities of vaccines. The group forecasts that at least 1.3 million doses will be made available to 92 countries by the end of 2021.
The list of 92 Gavi COVAX AMC-eligible countries and economies, based on 2018 and 2019 World Bank GNI data, are presented below:
Low income: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, North Korea, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania and Yemen.
Lower-middle income: Angola, Algeria, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Congo, Djibouti, East Timor, Egypt, El Salvador, eSwatini, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lesotho, Mauritania, Micronesia, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Bank and Gaza, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Additional IDA (international development association) eligible: Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guyana, Kosovo, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Samoa, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tonga, Tuvalu.
In addition to COVAX, there are other mechanisms built by Africa’s CDC to procure 270 million doses and 400 million doses, separately.
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.
