VICTORIA —
Health officials identified 53 new cases of COVID-19 in the Vancouver Island region Thursday.
The new coronavirus cases were among 832 cases found across the province over the past 24 hours, bringing B.C.’s total to 100,880 cases since the pandemic began.
Officials have now recorded 3,377 cases of COVID-19 in the island region since the pandemic began.
There were five more deaths related to the disease in B.C. on Thursday, bringing the province’s COVID-19 death toll to 1,463. No deaths were recorded in the Vancouver Island region, where the pandemic has killed 29.
There are currently 425 active cases of COVID-19 in the island region, including 13 people in hospital and two more in critical care.
Island Health identified the locations of 392 active cases in the region Thursday, including 189 in the South Island, 171 in the Central Island and 32 in the North Island.
Health officials have now administered 787,649 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in B.C., including 87,394 secondary doses.
The province’s long-promised website for booking vaccinations will go live on April 6, Health Minister Adrian Dix announced Thursday.
“There will also be a call centre backing it up but our online platform will be in place on that day,” Dix said.
Instructions on how to navigate the website will be released one day prior to the launch or earlier, the health minister said.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry warned British Columbians Thursday that people who are vaccinated can still be infected with COVID-19 “particularly in the first couple weeks” after receiving a vaccine.
“It is still incredibly important, even after you’ve been immunized – even if your community has been immunized – that you take the precautions that we all need to continue with,” Henry said.
“These are the things we need to pay attention to in the next few months as more and more people are immunized,” she added.
Henry reiterated that the province is on track to immunize everybody who wants a vaccine before the end of June. At that time, the province will restart its program of offering second doses to all who require them.
Henry said the province is looking at whether extending the current four-month window between first and second doses may have the beneficial effect of increased immunity to the virus.
B.C.’s top doctor continues to urge British Columbians to socialize safely, particularly this coming long weekend.
“If you do choose to spend time with anyone other than in your immediate household this weekend, it must be outdoors,” Henry said. “If you are in doubt at all this weekend, don’t go.”
Henry said those who feel they must take an overnight break from their homes should stay at a local hotel or campground.
“Travel is still very high-risk for all of us,” she said. “A good guideline is to think about staying in the area where you would go for a day trip.”
Health officials have identified 90 new variant cases in B.C. over the past two days.
“They spread more easily in most cases and in some cases they lead to more severe illness,” Henry said of the COVID-19 variants that have grown in rapidly increasing numbers in B.C. over the past few weeks.
“The same measures that we take for COVID all along work for the variants, we just have to do them more carefully and that’s more important than ever this weekend,” she said.
There are currently 192 active variant cases in the province, with 35 people in hospital with variant cases.
“We are not out of the woods by any means,” Henry said. “We are likely to be in for a rough ride for the next few days.”
B.C.’s health ministry will not be providing a COVID-19 case update on Friday. The next update will come in a written statement on Saturday, followed by a live update on Tuesday.
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.
