A coronavirus sniffer dog named E.T. receives a cuddle from trainer Anette Kare at the Helsinki airport in Vantaa, Finland, on Tuesday. E.T. is trained to detect arriving passengers with COVID-19. (Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)
We looked at 120,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada. Here’s what we found
The coronavirus has been confirmed in more than 146,600 people across the country since the first case was detected. CBC News has dug deep into the data collected by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to examine how COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, affects the young, the elderly, men and women in order to better understand what’s most likely to land you in hospital — or worse. The data contains details on 121,795 cases up to the first week of September.
Some of our findings:
CBC’s analysis reveals that since mid-August, infections among young people (under 30) have surged and now, after a summer of provincial reopenings and expanded testing, cumulatively outnumber the elderly. COVID-19 infections are also on the rise among the very youngest (under 20) as schools, colleges and universities reopen.
The 9,000 cases that list symptom details suggest that people with COVID-19 suffer differently depending on age and symptoms. Chills, sore throat and runny nose were reported more frequently among those under 50. Cough and fever were common among all age groups.
Close to 10 per cent of people who tested positive for coronavirus ended up in hospital, according to the cases tracked by PHAC. Two per cent of cases landed in intensive care units (ICU) across all ages but mostly among people over 50. In people admitted to hospital, shortness of breath and fever were more common symptoms, while headaches, sore throat and runny nose were seen more often in less severe cases.
More than 9,200 people have died in Canada with COVID-19. Of all confirmed infections in Canada, six per cent, or 9,274 cases, have been fatal, with the elderly hit the hardest. Only two people under 20 are known to have died from the disease so far. More women in Canada have died from COVID-19, especially in the 80+ age group, where they outnumber men. Outside that age group, more men are dying from the virus.
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A runny nose and sore throat can be symptoms of COVID-19, but they’re also common symptoms of a cold or flu. British Columbia has removed them from a list disqualifying children from in-class learning, calling it a minor symptom of coronavirus, while other provinces are considering following suit. 2:01
IN BRIEF
Trudeau to make rare address to the nation amid COVID-19 fight; throne speech promises more support for affected Canadians
Two of Trudeau’s rival party leaders, Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, have tested positive for the virus and have been forced to delay their responses to the throne speech until their self-isolation periods have ended.
CBC News will carry Trudeau’s address at 6:30 p.m. ET, followed by analysis and reaction. Watch, listen and follow live on cbcnews.ca, the CBC News app, CBC TV, CBC News Network, CBC Gem and CBC Radio, as well as on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Ontario to launch COVID-19 testing in pharmacies Friday
Ontario will begin offering COVID-19 testing in pharmacies Friday, beginning with up to 60 pharmacies around the province, Premier Doug Ford says. The testing will be available by appointment only, for those not experiencing symptoms of the virus, and is expected to roll out to further locations in the coming weeks, the province says.
In addition, three hospitals will be offering saliva testing starting this week. Those hospitals include Women’s College, Mount Sinai and University Health Network―Toronto Western Hospital. The saliva-based tests will at first be conducted alongside the usual nasal-pharyngeal testing to assess their accuracy, Health Minister Christine Elliott said at a news conference Wednesday.
The testing initiative is the second part of the government’s fall pandemic preparedness plan. The first piece involved purchasing millions of seasonal flu shots that the government is encouraging all residents to get.
“We have prepared for the worst,” Elliott said. The province has seen modelling of various scenarios including a slow burn of little peaks and valleys in the daily numbers to more dramatic increases, the minister said. Elliott said further details about those models will be unveiled as the province continues to roll out its fall plan.
120 active COVID-19 cases reported on First Nations reserves across Canada
There are currently 120 active cases of COVID-19 on First Nations reserves across Canada, according to data from Indigenous Services Canada. New cases since last week were primarily reported in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba. One death was reported, bringing the total of deaths on-reserve from COVID-19 to 10.
There have been 616 cases of COVID-19 on First Nations reserves as of Sept. 21, as well as 51 hospitalizations. A total of 486 First Nations people have recovered. Cases on First Nations reserves reported per region as of Sept. 21:
Johnson & Johnson begins final phase of single-shot COVID-19 vaccine study
New Jersey-based drug conglomerate Johnson & Johnson is beginning a huge final study to try to prove if a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the coronavirus, The Associated Press reports. The study starting Wednesday will be one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccine studies so far, testing the shot in 60,000 volunteers in the United States, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
In August, Canada signed a deal with a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson to secure up to 38 million doses of the company’s potential vaccine.
A handful of other vaccines in the U.S. — including shots made by Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. — and some in other countries are already in final-stage testing. Hopes are high that answers about at least one candidate being tested in the U.S. could come by year’s end, maybe sooner.
Many vaccine specialists question whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will move at a safe pace under intense pressure from the current U.S. administration. U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently presented a faster timeline for a new vaccine than experts say is adequate to fully test the candidates. On Wednesday, he tweeted a link to news about the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine study and said the FDA “must move quickly.”
“We feel cautiously optimistic that we will be able to have a safe and effective vaccine, although there is never a guarantee of that,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, told a Senate committee on Wednesday.
AND FINALLY…
Preserving your pandemic harvest? Start slow, say experts
In this file photo, pickling jars are seen at a culinary event in New York City in 2011. This year saw an explosion of interest in gardening as the pandemic forced people to stay closer to home. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for International Culinary Center Catering & Events)
Canadians who grew their own gardens this pandemic summer and are looking to try pickling their bounty for the first time should start small, says an Edmonton woman who has been canning for years.
“You don’t have to take the whole weekend,” said Johwanna Alleyne, who teaches canning courses and runs a pickling business in Edmonton called Mojo Jojo Pickles, which produces everything from ketchup to jelly and relish. “Start with single jars, like make one or two jars of something that you’re really proud of…. You’ll catch on pretty quickly.”
This year saw an explosion of interest in gardening as the pandemic forced people to stay closer to home. Similar to the early rush for toilet paper and flour, people are now facing a shortage of Mason jars used to preserve their homegrown fruits and veggies.
Alleyne said she’s certainly noticed people getting into canning and pickling for the first time this year. “I didn’t know that pickles were an essential service, but it seems like they are,” she told CBC Radio’s The Current. “I think we’ve all appreciated just slowing down a little bit. And fresh, real food and good flavour and the comfort of good flavours become really important.”
With pickling, the amount of acid in the jar and how you fill it is important, as is the processing time, said Alleyne. That’s because canning gone wrong can lead to spoilage or cause botulism. If jars meant to preserve peaches or nectarines aren’t prepared properly, for example, you may notice air bubbles, which will cause the preserved fruit to slowly spoil.
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.
