Wed, April 24, 2024 at 9:35 AM EDT
Business
Vaccine will save lives, says Hinshaw; 85 active COVID-19 cases in Medicine Hat – CHAT News Today
Hinshaw said she believes the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks, and this vaccine will save lives.
“There is overwhelming scientific evidence that vaccination is the best defense against serious infections. When it is your turn, please get immunized. It is an act of kindness for yourself, for your loved ones and for your community.”
Vaccinations will only be administered in Calgary and Edmonton for now but will expand to priority health-care workers province-wide when another 25,000 doses arrive next week.
There are 85 active cases of COVID-19 in Medicine Hat.
The city now has had 392 total cases – the 85 active, 302 recovered and there have been five deaths.
There are eight new cases in the city in Wednesday’s update and six recoveries.
Across the province, there are 20,169 active cases, down 480 from Tuesday, and 63,668 recovered cases, up 1,734.
Alberta’s total number of COVID-19 cases from the start of the pandemic is 84,597.
There are 1,270 new cases in the province today.
There are now 749 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, 139 of which are in ICU, and 760 deaths.
The province completed 17,569 tests in the past 24 hours.
The provincial positivity rate is 7.3 per cent.
With 16 new deaths in the past 24 hours, Hinshaw offered what she called a sobering statistic.
“In less than 10 months, more Albertans have now died from COVID-19 than have died from influenza in the last 10 years combined,” she said.
Medicine Hat remains on the provincial “Watch” list and is in enhanced status. In enhanced status, risk levels require enhanced public health measures to control the spread and are informed by local context.
Regions are placed on the province’s “Watch” list when they have a rate of more than 50 active cases per 100,000 population. Medicine Hat’s 83 active cases among 68,057 people puts it at a rate of 124.9.
Cypress County with a rate of 107 on 12 active cases is also on the list.
Brooks (196.0 rate), the County of Newell (210.1), Lethbridge (206.1) Lethbridge County (214) and the MD of Taber (164.3) are also on the list.
All those regions are also in enhanced status.
There are 4,640 cases in the South Zone. There are 553 active cases and 4,035 recovered. There are 20 in hospital due to COVID-19 in the zone, four of them in the ICU. The death total in the zone is at 52.
On Tuesday, an AHS spokesperson told CHAT News AHS South Zone currently has 19 COVID-19 positive individuals in hospital. There are seven at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, with one of those in the ICU. Chinook Regional Hospital in Lethbridge has 12 inpatients, with three in the ICU.
On Wednesday there are 297 schools in the province where outbreaks have been declared. Alberta Health’s threshold for declaring an outbreak in school is two cases being in a school while infectious within 14 days.
In the city, Crescent Heights High School is listed as having an outbreak.
In Brooks, an outbreak is listed at Christ the King Academy and at Holy Family Academy.
The website Support Our Students is tracking instances of cases in schools across the province.
Cypress County has totaled 135 cases – 12 active cases and the rest recovered.
The County of Forty Mile has 113 total cases. There is one active case, 110 recovered and there have been two deaths.
The MD of Taber has 293 total cases — 31 active cases, 256 recovered and there have been six deaths.
Special Areas No. 2 has 33 total cases – eight active, 24 recovered and there has been one death.
Brooks has 1,325 total cases — 38 active and 1,273 are recovered. Brooks has recorded 14 deaths.
The County of Newell has a total of 135 cases — 17 active cases, 116 recovered and there have been two deaths.
The County of Warner has 141 total cases. There are 11 active cases, 128 are recovered cases and there have been two deaths in the county.
The City of Lethbridge has a total of 1,292 cases. There are 204 active cases, 1,081 recovered and there have been seven deaths. Lethbridge County has 398 cases, 54 active cases, 341 recovered and there have been three deaths.
The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Dec. 15, 2020.”
Read the full Dec. 16 update from the province here.
Saskatchewan confirmed 169 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, four in the South Zones.
Saskatchewan has a total of 12,594 cases, 4,213 considered active. There are 8,283 recovered cases and there have been 98 COVID-19 deaths in the province.
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Oil companies planning to ship crude on the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada are concerned that the project may not begin full service on May 1 but they would be nevertheless obligated to pay tolls from that date.
In a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), Suncor Energy and other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum have expressed doubts that Trans Mountain will start full service on May 1, as previously communicated, Reuters reports.
Trans Mountain Corporation, the government-owned entity that completed the pipeline construction, told Reuters in an email that line fill on the expanded pipeline would be completed in early May.
After a series of delays, cost overruns, and legal challenges, the expanded Trans Mountain oil pipeline will open for business on May 1, the company said early this month.
“The Commencement Date for commercial operation of the expanded system will be May 1, 2024. Trans Mountain anticipates providing service for all contracted volumes in the month of May,” Trans Mountain Corporation said in early April.
The expanded pipeline will triple the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia on the Pacific Coast.
The Federal Government of Canada bought the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) from Kinder Morgan back in 2018, together with related pipeline and terminal assets. That cost the federal government $3.3 billion (C$4.5 billion) at the time. Since then, the costs for the expansion of the pipeline have quadrupled to nearly $23 billion (C$30.9 billion).
The expansion project has faced continuous delays over the years. In one of the latest roadblocks in December, the Canadian regulator denied a variance request from the project developer to move a small section of the pipeline due to challenging drilling conditions.
The company asked the regulator to reconsider its decision, and received on January 12 a conditional approval, avoiding what could have been another two-year delay to start-up.
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Tesla profits slump by more than a half
Tesla has announced its profits fell sharply in the first three months of the year to $1.13bn (£910m), compared with $2.51bn in 2023.
It caps a difficult period for the electric vehicle (EV) maker, which – faced with falling sales – has announced thousands of job cuts.
Boss Elon Musk remains bullish about its prospects, telling investors the launch of new models would be brought forward.
Its share price has risen but analysts say it continues to face significant challenges, including from lower-cost rivals.
The company has suffered from falling demand and competition from cheaper Chinese imports which has led its stock price to collapse by 43% over 2024.
Figures for the first quarter of 2024 revealed revenues of $21.3bn, down on analysts’ predictions of just over $22bn.
But the decision by Tesla to bring forward the launch of new models from the second half of 2025 boosted its shares by nearly 12.5% in after-hours trading.
It did not reveal pricing details for the new vehicles.
However Mr Musk made clear he also grander ambitions, touting Tesla’s AI credentials and plans for self-driving vehicles – even going as far as to say considering it to be just a car company was the “wrong framework.”
“If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy I think they should not be an investor,” he said.
Such sentiments have been questioned by analysts though, with Deutsche Bank saying driverless cars face “technological, regulatory and operational challenges.”
Some investors have called for the company to instead focus on releasing a lower price, mass-market EV.
However, Tesla has already been on a charm offensive, trying to win over new customers by dropping its prices in a series of markets in the face of falling sales.
It also said its situation was not unique.
“Global EV sales continue to be under pressure as many carmakers prioritize hybrids over EVs,” it said.
Despite plans to bring forward new models originally planned for next year the firm is cutting its workforce.
Tesla said it would lose 3,332 jobs in California and 2,688 positions in Texas, starting mid-June.
The cuts in Texas represent 12% of Tesla’s total workforce of almost 23,000 in the area where its gigafactory and headquarters are located.
However, Mr Musk sought to downplay the move.
“Tesla has now created over 30,000 manufacturing jobs in California!” he said in a post on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.
Another 285 jobs will be lost in New York.
Tesla’s total workforce stood at more than 140,000 late last year, up from around 100,000 at the end of 2021, according to the company’s filings with US regulators.
Musk’s salary
The car firm is also facing other issues, with a struggle over Mr Musk’s compensation still raging on.
On Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to vote for a proposal to accept Mr Musk’s compensation package – once valued at $56bn – which had been rejected by a Delaware judge.
The judge found Tesla’s directors had breached their fiduciary duty to the firm by awarding Mr Musk the pay-out.
Due to the fall in Tesla’s stock value, the compensation package is now estimated to be around $10bn less – but still greater than the GDP of many countries.
In addition, Tesla wants its shareholders to agree to the firm being moved from Delaware to Texas – which Mr Musk called for after the judge rejected his payday.
Business
Stock market today: Nasdaq futures pop, Tesla surges after earnings with more heavyweights on deck
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Tech stocks rose on Wednesday, outstripping the broader market as investors welcomed Tesla’s (TSLA) cheaper car pledge and waited for the next rush of corporate earnings.
The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose roughly 0.6%, coming off a sharp closing gain. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.2%, continuing a rebound from its longest losing streak of 2024, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell 0.1%.
Tesla shares jumped nearly 12% after the EV maker’s vow to speed up the launch of more affordable models eclipsed its quarterly earnings and revenue miss. That cheered up investors worried about growth amid a strategy shift to robotaxis and the planned cancellation of a cheaper model.
The results from the first “Magnificent Seven” to report have intensified the already high hopes for Big Tech earnings, that the megacaps can revive the rally in stocks they powered. The spotlight is now on Meta’s (META) report due after the market close, as the Facebook owner’s shares rose after the Senate voted for a potential ban on rival TikTok. Microsoft (MSFT) and Alphabet (GOOG) next up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Boeing (BA) reported better than expected first quarter results before the opening bell with a loss per share of $1.13, narrower than the $1.72 estimated by Wall Street. Shares rose about 2% in morning trade.
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