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Global National: Aug. 31, 2020 | Canada signs more deals to secure COVID-19 vaccine doses Global NewsView Full coverage on Google News[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Canada signs 2 more deals to receive potential COVID-19 vaccines CityNews TorontoView Full coverage on Google News[unable to retrieve full-text content]
OTTAWA -- The federal government has reached agreements with Novavax and Johnson & Johnson to secure millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
The deals hinge on Health Canada approval but if trials proceed as planned, deliveries in Canada would begin at the start of 2021. The government has also inked deals with pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna for access to millions of doses of their unique candidates.
"Taken together, our vaccine agreements with Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson, will give Canada at least 88 million doses, with options to obtain tens of millions more," said Trudeau during a press conference on Monday.
"Once a vaccine is proven to work, we’ll also need to be able to produce and distribute it here at home."
To date, Novavax will supply 76 million doses of NVX-CoV2373, Moderna will supply 56 million of mRNA-1273, Johnson & Johnson will supply 38 million of Ad26.COV2.S, and Pfizer will supply 20 million BNT162.
Trudeau also announced the government would be spending $126 million to expand the bio-manufacturing facility at the National Research Council in Montreal, with a projected deadline of mid-2021.
"This funding will increase this facility’s ability to manufacture vaccines and will strengthen the NRC’s partnerships with vaccine developers."
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says the candidate still has a variety of regulatory hurdles to overcome before it gets the green light but this step indicates Canada is well positioned in the global race to find a COVID-19 vaccine.
"It’s wonderful to see that the federal government is looking at vaccine candidates, looking at which ones could be successful. We appreciate that some of these might not be successful and we’re sort of hedging our bets and we’ll have access to vaccines when they become available," he told CTV News Channel on Monday.
This follows news last week that Chinese customs halted the shipment of CanSino Biologics’ vaccine candidate to Canada, denying the opportunity to commence human trials here.
"Due to the delay in the shipment of the vaccine doses to Canada it is evident this specific opportunity is over and the NRC is focusing its team and facilities on other partners and COVID-19 priorities," the National Research Council said in a statement on Thursday.
Trudeau responded to the move on Monday, saying he had hoped the long-standing partnership between the Canadian government and CanSino would have proved fruitful amid COVID-19 after successfully partnering with the company to combat the Ebola virus.
"Unfortunately China didn’t grant export permits for the vaccine to Canada so we’re continuing to focus on the many other paths that are very promising," he said.
While multiple trials testing various vaccine candidates are progressing around the world, there is currently no accepted cure or vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
In a follow-up press conference on Monday, Health Minister Patty Hajdu said COVID-19 immunization will not be mandatory but Canadians can be assured that Health Canada’s regulatory process will yield a safe vaccine.
"We want to be very clear, Health Canada will not authorize a vaccine unless scientific evidence demonstrates that it is safe and effective," she said. "Even in this accelerated environment, health-care officials are working around the clock to ensure Canada is well prepared when a safe vaccine becomes available."
She praised Canadians for having a high degree of vaccine literacy when compared internationally, but warned of misinformation online.
"It’s so important that Canadians use credible sources when they’re looking for information about this vaccine and any other," she said. "Including your family doctor, local public health units, or by visiting Health Canada’s website."
Asked about which countries will get access to what and when, Minister of Procurement Anita Anand said the government’s strategy to diversify suppliers will place Canada at the "front of the line."
"At this stage, no one knows which vaccine is going to be successful. Therefore, we need to have many options on the table for Canadians and I will assure you that we aren’t on a frolic of our own in this decision-making."
While Canada won’t have hands on the production of these vaccine candidates, Anand said investments like that in the NRC will help bolster the country’s abilities in the longer term.
"We need to make sure just as we did with PPE that there is a Canadian answer here."
Canada's federal government has signed agreements with two U.S. drug companies to secure up to 114 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines under development.
Maryland-based biotechnology company Novavax announced in a press release Monday that it has struck a deal to produce 76 million doses of a vaccine it is working on for the Canadian government, should the vaccine ever get Health Canada approval.
Later in the day, Ottawa announced it has signed a separate deal with a subsidiary of New Jersey-based drug conglomerate Johnson & Johnson to secure up to 38 million doses of the company's potential vaccine, which is completely different from Novavax's.
The vaccines are two of dozens in development around the world, each of which targets the virus that causes COVID-19 in a different way.
At last count, the virus has killed more than 846,000 people around the world since the start of this year.
Novavax's vaccine is known as a "protein subunit" vaccine, which has the advantage of being manufactured faster than some other types of vaccine but generally doesn't produce as strong an immune response as some other potential options.
The company released promising results of a very small clinical trial earlier this month, which showed it produced higher levels of the antibodies in healthy volunteers after two doses than those found in recovered COVID-19 patients.
The initial trial tested 106 subjects aged 18 to 59 with the vaccine, along with 25 people who received a placebo.
The next phase of testing currently underway in the U.S. and Australia will include many more people, and at least half of them will be between the ages of 60 and 84, an age bracket that faces the highest risk of having the worst outcomes from being infected, based on what is known about the virus.
The company plans to start much larger late-stage clinical trials soon, and told Reuters last month that if all goes well, they expect they could obtain regulatory approvals as early as December.
The company said Monday the vaccine, should it work and be safe, would be available to Canadians as early as the second quarter of 2021.
"We are pleased to work with the Canadian government on supply of our COVID-19 vaccine, an essential step to ensure broad access of our vaccine candidate," said CEO Stanley C. Erck in a release.
The agreement with Novovax "will give Canadians access to a promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate," said Anita Anand, Canada's minister of public services and procurement, in a news release.
WATCH: Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu answers a question about how many Canadians may need to be vaccinated.
"This is an important step in our government's efforts to secure a vaccine to keep Canadians safe and healthy, as the global pandemic evolves."
Novavax has signed similar deals with the United Kingdom, India, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Japan to supply doses of the potential vaccine.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine candidate, whose full name is Ad26.COV2.S, targets the virus in a completely different way than the Novavax candidate.
It is what's known as non-replicating viral vector vaccine, which are viruses that have been genetically engineered so they can't replicate and cause disease then injected into the body to provoke an immune response.
A phase 1 and 2 trial of that vaccine is underway in the U.S. and Belgium.
The deals with Novavax and Johnson & Johnson come on the heels of similar ones that the federal government has signed with other drug companies, including one for at least 20 million doses of a potential vaccine from Pfizer and up to 56 million from Moderna.
While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both RNA vaccines and thus functionally similar, they are completely different from the Novavax and Johnson & Johnson candidates, which means that Canada has potentially secured access to millions of vaccine doses that work in three completely distinct ways.
At a press conference on Monday, Anand said the government is also in the final stages of negotiations with drug firm AstraZeneca, which is working with Oxford University on a promising non-replicating viral vector vaccine.
"Taken together, our vaccine agreements will give Canada at least 88 million doses, with options to obtain tens of millions more," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a press conference on Monday morning, during which he also announced $126 million to expand a bio-manufacturing facility in Montreal, to produce drugs and vaccines to combat COVID-19 and other things.
"In the weeks and months ahead, our government will continue to take the steps needed to make sure Canada gets a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible," Trudeau said.
"Once a vaccine is proven to work, we'll also need to be able to produce and distribute it here at home."
Novavax's vaccine is one of roughly a dozen that has been singled out by the U.S. government for funding under the so-called Operation Warp Speed plan to speed up treatments for the coronavirus that has swept the world into economic chaos this year.
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Feds sign deals with Novavax and Johnson & Johnson to secure millions of vaccine doses CTV NewsView Full coverage on Google News
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the federal government has signed agreements with two more American suppliers to reserve millions of doses of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines for Canadians.
Deals are now in place for Canada to get access to vaccines being tested by both Johnson & Johnson and Novavax. Earlier this month Ottawa signed similar deals with Pfizer and Moderna.
“Their most recent vaccine tests show promising results,” said Trudeau. “That's why we're making sure that if one of these potential vaccines is successful, Canada and Canadians will have access to the doses they need.”
The vaccines are still in either Phase 2 or 3 clinical trials and won't be purchased unless they are deemed safe and effective by Health Canada.
Trudeau says all told Canada could get access to at least 88 million doses of vaccines. Some vaccines will require more than one dose to be effective.
The agreement with Novavax, a Maryland-based biotech company, is for up to 76 million doses of its vaccine, which is in Phase 2 clinical trials in the United States and Australia right now. That means it's being tested for safety and efficacy in a fairly small number of people. The earliest date that vaccine might be ready for widespread use is next spring.
The agreement with Johnson & Johnson is for up to 38 million doses. A Phase 1 and 2 trial of that vaccine is underway in the U.S. and Belgium.
The government says some of the doses of whatever vaccine is approved may be produced at a new biomanufacturing facility at the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre in Montreal. The new facility is intended to produce up to two million doses of vaccine a month by the end of next summer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 31, 2020.
OTTAWA -- The federal government has reached agreements with Novavax and Johnson & Johnson to secure millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
The deals hinge on Health Canada approval but if trials proceed as planned, deliveries in Canada would begin at the start of 2021. The government has also inked deals with pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna for access to millions of doses of their unique candidates.
"Taken together, our vaccine agreements with Pfizer, Moderna, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson, will give Canada at least 88 million doses, with options to obtain tens of millions more," said Trudeau during a press conference on Monday.
"Once a vaccine is proven to work, we’ll also need to be able to produce and distribute it here at home."
Trudeau also announced the government would be spending $126 million to expand the bio-manufacturing facility at the National Research Council in Montreal, with a projected deadline of mid-2021.
"This funding will increase this facility’s ability to manufacture vaccines and will strengthen the NRC’s partnerships with vaccine developers."
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch says the candidate still has a variety of regulatory hurdles to overcome before it gets the green light but this step indicates Canada is well positioned in the global race to find a COVID-19 vaccine.
"It’s wonderful to see that the federal government is looking at vaccine candidates, looking at which ones could be successful. We appreciate that some of these might not be successful and we’re sort of hedging our bets and we’ll have access to vaccines when they become available," he told CTV News Channel on Monday.
This follows news last week that Chinese customs halted the shipment of CanSino Biologics’ vaccine candidate to Canada, denying the opportunity to commence human trials here.
"Due to the delay in the shipment of the vaccine doses to Canada it is evident this specific opportunity is over and the NRC is focusing its team and facilities on other partners and COVID-19 priorities," the National Research Council said in a statement on Thursday.
Trudeau responded to the move on Monday, saying he had hoped the long-standing partnership between the Canadian government and CanSino would have proved fruitful amid COVID-19 after successfully partnering with the company to combat the Ebola virus.
"Unfortunately China didn’t grant export permits for the vaccine to Canada so we’re continuing to focus on the many other paths that are very promising," he said.
While multiple trials testing various vaccine candidates are progressing around the world, there is currently no accepted cure or vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The prime minister said Canadians should be reassured that Health Canada’s regulatory process will yield a safe and reliable vaccine.
"Every step of the way, we’re ensuring that the safety of Canadians is foremost. We will not see testing protocols approved until they are safe for Canadians, we will not move forward on a vaccine until we are confident that it is safe for Canadians."
Canada has inked two additional deals with companies working on a possible vaccine for COVID-19.
The two agreements include 76 million doses of Novavax Inc.’s vaccine candidate and 38 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s candidate.
They bring Canada’s total number of procurement agreements with vaccine developers to four, as deals with Pfizer Canada and Moderna were announced earlier this month.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged Monday that there is “a lot more work to go” on the development of any of these vaccines, but said the “broad range of vaccine developers” Canada has signed on with will be beneficial in the long run.
“It’s possible there will be a breakthrough soon, but we don’t know where or when that breakthrough will be,” he said.
“Taken together, our vaccine agreements will give Canada at least 88 million doses with options to obtain tens of millions more.”
Novavax — a biotechnology company that develops vaccines for serious infectious diseases — said it expects to finalize the advance purchase agreement “as early as the second quarter of 2021.”
Novavax’s vaccine (NVX-CoV2373) is currently in its second phase of clinical trials. The company plans to begin the third phase in September.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is due to begin mid-stage trials this week. The Phase 2 trial is set to last two months.
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Vaccine trials by Pfizer Canada, which is working with BioNTech in Germany, and U.S.-based Moderna, have both advanced to the third stage of clinical trials. Canada has requested 20 million and 56 million doses of those candidates, respectively.
Monday’s announcement is the first glimpse of how many doses of vaccine candidates the government is working to secure. Previously, the government did not elaborate on the number of doses it was requesting from companies, merely saying “millions.”
The cost of the agreements is not yet clear.
Novavax’s vaccine has shown an ability to produce antibodies against COVID-19, according to initial data from an early-stage trial this month.
The company recently began enrolling volunteers for its second phase candidate, with data from that part of the clinical trial expected in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Globally, the Novavax vaccine is one of nearly 30 being tested in human clinical trials. However, it lags behind candidates from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, which are in later stages at this time.
The United States and Britain are also in deals with Novavax. The U.S. awarded the company $1.6 billion in July to test and manufacture its vaccine in the country, with the hopes of securing 100 million doses by January. Britain has requested to buy 60 million doses.
The Novavax vaccine, and any other potential vaccine, will be required to pass Health Canada regulatory approval before being distributed.
Anita Anand, the minister of public services and procurement, in a statement called the in-principle agreement “an important step” in the government’s efforts to secure a vaccine as the pandemic continues and “evolves.”
As of Aug. 30, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 9,117 lives in Canada overall, and 127,870 cases have been diagnosed, according to figures released by provincial and territorial governments.
The vast majority of people diagnosed — about 89 per cent — have recovered from the viral illness.
More than 6.3 million tests have been conducted since late January.
— with files from Reuters and Global News’ Kerri Breen
View link »© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Canada's federal government has signed an agreement in principle to acquire up to 76 million doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by an American company.
Maryland-based biotechnology company Novavax announced in a press release Monday that it has struck a deal to produce a vaccine it is working on for the Canadian government, should the vaccine ever get Health Canada approval.
The company's vaccine is one of more than 100 in development around the world, each of which targets the virus that causes COVID-19 in a different way.
At last count, the virus has killed more than 846,000 people around the world since the start of this year.
Novavax's vaccine is known as a "protein subunit" vaccine, which has the advantage of being manufactured faster than some other types of vaccine but generally doesn't produce as strong an immune response as some other potential options.
The company released promising results of a very small clinical trial earlier this month, which showed it produced higher levels of the antibodies in healthy volunteers after two doses than those found in recovered COVID-19 patients.
The initial trial tested 106 subjects aged 18 to 59 with the vaccine, along with 25 people who received a placebo. The next phase of testing will include many more people, and at least half of them will be between the ages of 60 and 84, an age bracket of people who face the highest risk of having the worst outcomes from being infected, based on what we know about the virus.
The company plans to start much larger late-stage clinical trials soon, and told Reuters last month that if all goes well, they expect they could obtain regulatory approvals as early as December. The company said Monday the vaccine, should it work and be safe, would be available to Canadians as early as the second quarter of 2021.
"We are pleased to work with the Canadian government on supply of our COVID-19 vaccine, an essential step to ensure broad access of our vaccine candidate," said CEO Stanley C. Erck in a release.
"We are pleased to announce this agreement with Novavax, which will give Canadians access to a promising COVID-19 vaccine candidate," Canada's minister of public services and procurement, Anita Anand, said in a news release.
"This is an important step in our government's efforts to secure a vaccine to keep Canadians safe and healthy, as the global pandemic evolves."
Novavax has signed similar deals with the United Kingdom, India, the Czech Republic, South Africa and Japan to supply doses of the potential vaccine.
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha
2/2
(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (N:) has bought a 5% stake in each of Japan's five biggest trading houses, together worth over $6 billion, marking a departure for Chairman Warren Buffett as he looks beyond the United States to diversify his conglomerate.
The long-term investment in Itochu Corp (T:), Marubeni Corp (T:), Mitsubishi Corp (T:), Mitsui & Co Ltd (T:) and Sumitomo Corp (T:) could see the stakes rise to 9.9%, Berkshire said on Sunday, Buffett's 90th birthday.
"The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more," Buffett said in a statement. "I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit."
The investment will help reduce Berkshire's dependence on the U.S. economy, which in the last quarter contracted the most in at least 73 years as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. Many of its businesses have struggled, including aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts from which it bore a $9.8 billion writedown.
Buffett's choice in Japan, however, surprised market players as trading houses have long been far from investor favorites. As well as significant exposure to the energy sector and resource price volatility, tangled business models involving commodities as varied as noodles and rockets have long been a turn-off.
"Their cheap valuation may have been an attraction," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:) Morgan Stanley (NYSE:) Securities in Tokyo. "But it is un-Buffett-like to buy into all five companies rather than selecting a few."
BELOW BOOK
Berkshire bought the little-over 5% stakes in about a year through insurance business National Indemnity Co. Together, five 5% stakes were worth 700 billion yen ($6.63 billion), Reuters calculations showed based on Refinitiv data.
Firms' shares often rise when Buffett discloses investment, reflecting what investors view as his imprimatur. On Monday, Marubeni and Sumitomo ended up over 9%, followed by Mitsubishi and Mitsui at over 7%. Itochu rose 4.2% to a record high.
Even so, Marubeni, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo are still 10% down on the year, versus a 6% fall in the Topix () index. Itochu, which has shifted towards consumer-related businesses, is the only one whose share price is higher than last year.
Indeed, Itochu is the only one whose stock trades above its book value. That means, for the other four, their market capitalization is less than the value of their assets, making them attractive to a value investor like Buffett.
Several have large amounts of cash on hand, raising their appeal. Mitsubishi, for instance, has seen steady growth in free cash flow per share for four years, Refinitiv data showed.
Trading houses are also deeply involved in the real economy in areas such as steel, shipping, commodities, putting them on the radar of an investor such as Buffett who famously avoids investing in businesses he claims not to understand.
Asked about the investment, Mitsui told Reuters it aims to improve returns for all shareholders. Marubeni and Mitsubishi said they will continue efforts to improve corporate value. Sumitomo said it will communicate with Berkshire as with all other shareholders. Itochu was not available to comment.
U.S. DEPENDENCE
Berkshire owns more than 90 businesses outright including the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurer outright.
It also invests in dozens of companies including American Express Co (N:), Bank of America Corp (N:) and Coca-Cola Co (N:). It has a roughly $125 billion stake in Apple Inc (O:) based on its holdings as of June 30.
"Buffett's portfolio is becoming heavily skewed to Apple, so maybe he was looking for something the complete opposite of Apple," said Monex chief strategist Hiroki Takashi in Tokyo.
Most of Berkshire's operating businesses are American, though it has acquired a handful of foreign companies including Israel's IMC International Metalworking and German motorcycle apparel retailer Detlev Louis.
Additional investments in Japan could also help reduce Berkshire's cash pile, which ended June at a record $146.6 billion.
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha
(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (N:) said it has acquired slightly more than 5% of the shares in five large Japanese companies, marking a departure for Chairman Warren Buffett as he looks outside the United States to bolster his conglomerate.
In a statement on Sunday, Buffett's 90th birthday, Berkshire said it acquired its stakes in Itochu Corp (T:), Marubeni Corp (T:), Mitsubishi Corp (T:), Mitsui & Co Ltd (T:) and Sumitomo Corp (T:) over approximately 12 months.
Berkshire said it intends to hold the investments for the long term, and may boost its stakes to 9.9%. A Berkshire insurance business, National Indemnity Co, is holding the shares.
"I am delighted to have Berkshire Hathaway participate in the future of Japan," Buffett said in a statement. "The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more... I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit."
Taken together, five 5% stakes were worth 655 billion yen ($6.21 billion) as of Friday's close, Reuters calculation showed based on Refinitiv data.
On Monday, shares in the trading houses jumped as much as 11% in early Tokyo trade, outperforming a 1.5% rise in the broader TOPIX () share price index.
Marubeni was the biggest gainer among the five, surging 12%. Sumitomo and Mitsubishi rose more than 10% and Mitsui rose 8.2%. Itochu - the only one of the four with a price-to-book ratio above 1 - rose 5.4% to a record high.
Shares of companies often rise when Berkshire discloses new investments, reflecting what investors view as Buffett's imprimatur.
The Japanese trading companies in many ways appear to be a typical Buffett investment: four of them trade well below book value, meaning their market capitalizations were below their assets.
Several also have hefty amounts of cash on hand. Mitsubishi, for instance, has seen steady growth in its free cash flow per share over the last four years, Refinitiv data showed.
Further and in a likely attraction for Buffett - who famously avoids investing in companies he claims not to understand - the Japanese trading houses are deeply involved in the real economy: steel, shipping, commodities, and in some cases retail.
U.S. DEPENDENCE
The Japanese investments will help Buffett reduce his Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate's dependence on the U.S. economy, which last quarter suffered its deepest contraction in at least 73 years as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Many of Berkshire's own operating businesses have struggled, and Berkshire this month took a $9.8 billion writedown on its Precision Castparts aircraft parts business.
Berkshire owns more than 90 businesses including the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurer outright.
It also invests in dozens of companies including Apple Inc (O:), with a roughly $125 billion stake based on its holdings as of June 30, as well as American Express Co (N:), Bank of America Corp (N:) and Coca-Cola Co (N:).
"Since Buffett's portfolio is becoming heavily skewed to Apple, maybe he was looking for something complete the opposite of Apple," said Hiroki Takashi, chief strategist at Monex in Tokyo.
Most of Berkshire's operating businesses are American, though it has acquired a handful of foreign companies including Israel's IMC International Metalworking and German motorcycle apparel retailer Detlev Louis.
Additional investments in Japan could also help Buffett reduce Berkshire's cash pile, which ended June at a record $146.6 billion.
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett walks through the exhibit hall as shareholders gather to hear from the billionaire investor at Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha
(Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Inc (N:) said it has acquired slightly more than 5% of the shares in five large Japanese companies, marking a departure for Chairman Warren Buffett as he looks outside the United States to bolster his conglomerate.
In a statement on Sunday, Buffett's 90th birthday, Berkshire said it acquired its stakes in Itochu Corp (T:), Marubeni Corp (T:), Mitsubishi Corp (T:), Mitsui & Co (T:) and Sumitomo Corp (T:) over approximately 12 months.
Berkshire said it intends to hold the investments for the long term, and may boost its stakes to 9.9%. A Berkshire insurance business, National Indemnity Co, is holding the shares.
"I am delighted to have Berkshire Hathaway participate in the future of Japan," Buffett said in a statement. "The five major trading companies have many joint ventures throughout the world and are likely to have more.... I hope that in the future there may be opportunities of mutual benefit."
The Japanese investments will help Buffett reduce his Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate's dependence on the U.S. economy, which last quarter suffered its deepest contraction in at least 73 years as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Many of Berkshire's own operating businesses have struggled, and Berkshire this month took a $9.8 billion writedown on its Precision Castparts aircraft parts business.
Berkshire owns more than 90 businesses including the BNSF railroad and Geico car insurer outright.
It also invests in dozens of companies including Apple Inc (O:), with a roughly $125 billion stake based on its holdings as of June 30, as well as American Express Co (N:), Bank of America Corp (N:) and Coca-Cola Co (N:).
Most of Berkshire's operating businesses are American, though it has acquired a handful of foreign companies including Israel's IMC International Metalworking and German motorcycle apparel retailer Detlev Louis.
Additional investments in Japan could also help Buffett reduce Berkshire's cash stake, which ended June at a record $146.6 billion
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Nova Scotia Public Health is advising of potential COVID-19 exposures on two WestJet flights from Calgary to Halifax last week, according to multiple press releases Sunday.
Flight 232 on Aug. 24 and Aug. 26 both left Calgary at 9:30 a.m. and landed in Halifax at 5:14 p.m.
On Aug. 24, passengers in rows 20-24 in seats A, B, C and D are most likely to have had close contact. On the Aug. 26 flight, it's passengers in rows 21-26 in seats A, B and C.
Passengers in those rows and seats are advised to call 811.
People who were on either flight, but not in the identified rows and seats, are advised to self-monitor.
Health officials are also advising of a potential exposure on Aug. 24 in a taxi cab that left the Halifax Stanfield International Airport between 6 and 7 p.m. and travelled to a residence in Halifax.
The person or people travelling in the taxi were asymptomatic at the time, according to the release, and the advisory is being issued out of "an abundance of caution".
Lauren MacDougall, a spokesperson for Nova Scotia Health told CBC News in an email the exposures announced Sunday are not related to any previously reported cases, but the province will provide an update on Monday.
No new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Nova Scotia Sunday.
Five cases previously identified remain active, but none of those who are sick are in hospital.
The QEII microbiology lab completed 856 tests on Saturday and all were negative for the virus. Nova Scotia has had 75,144 negative test results overall.
Of the 1,083 positive Nova Scotia cases, 1,013 are now considered to be resolved. There have been 65 deaths related to the virus in the province.
The latest numbers from around the Atlantic bubble are:
Anyone with the following symptoms of COVID-19 should go to this website to see if they should call 811 for further assessment:
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The latest coronavirus news from Canada and around the world Sunday. This file will be updated throughout the day. Web links to longer stories if available.
3:19 p.m.: Public health officials in Nova Scotia say passengers on a recent flight from Calgary to Halifax may have been exposed to COVID-19.
The province says the potential exposure occurred on WestJet flight WS-232 on Aug. 24, which landed in Halifax at 5:14 p.m. that day.
Authorities say passengers in rows 20 through 24, seats A, B, C and D, are more likely to have been exposed to COVID-19.
They say those passengers should call 811 for advice and that all passengers on the flight should self-monitor for any symptoms.
1:32 p.m.: Quebec is reporting 120 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths.
Public health officials say the deaths took place between Aug. 23-28.
The province has now reported 62,352 cases of COVID-19 and 5,758 deaths since the pandemic began.
The number of hospitalizations went down by one over the past 24 hours, for a total of 116.
Of that, 16 people are in intensive care, a decrease of one from the previous day.
The province says it carried out 13,543 COVID-19 tests on Friday, the last date for which the testing data is available.
1:30 p.m.: The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally has topped 25 million, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the count with 5.9 million cases, followed by Brazil with 3.8 million and India with 3.5 million.
The real number of people infected by the virus around the world is believed to be much higher — perhaps 10 times higher in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — given testing limitations and the many mild cases that have gone unreported or unrecognized.
Global deaths from COVID-19 stand at over 842,000, with the U.S. having the highest number with 182,779, followed by Brazil with 120,262 and Mexico with 63,819.
11:15 a.m.: Ontario is reporting 112 new cases of COVID-19 and one new death related to the coronavirus.
There were also 78 cases newly marked as resolved in today's report.
The total number of cases now stands at 42,195, which includes 2,810 deaths and 38,204 cases marked as resolved.
The province says 51 people are currently in hospital with the virus, with 20 in intensive care and 10 on ventilators.
It notes that about 35 hospitals did not submit daily bed census data for the period, as is often the case on weekends. Those numbers will be reflected in the coming days.
The province was able to complete 24,970 tests in the previous day.
10:15 a.m.: As the back-to-school season looms with fears of a second wave of the pandemic, a recent Angus Reid survey indicates that while most Canadians are following all or most advice to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, there is a skeptical cohort that defies guidance on group size, bubbles, handwashing, distancing and masks.
The polling company labelled them “cynical spreaders.” They are more likely to be young, more likely to live in the western part of the country, more likely to believe that current restrictions go too far.
While “cynical spreaders” are in the minority, their reaction to public-health advice and rules is far from original.
Read the full story from the Star’s Katie Daubs here.
10:15 a.m.: South Korea has reported 299 new cases of the coronavirus as officials placed limits on dining at restaurants and closed fitness centres and after-school academies in the greater capital area to slow the spread of the virus.
The 17th consecutive day of triple-digit increases brought the national caseload to 19,699, including 323 deaths.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 209 of the new cases came from capital Seoul, nearby Gyeonggi province and Incheon, a region that had been at the centre of a viral resurgence this month.
Thirty cases were also reported in the southeastern city of Daegu, the epicentre of the previous major outbreak in late February and March.
Churches have emerged as a major source of infections in the Seoul region and elsewhere, with many of them failing to properly enforce masks and allowing worshippers to sing and eat together. Clusters have also popped up from restaurants, schools, nursing homes and apartment buildings.
Health authorities have ordered churches and nightspots to close and shifted more schools back to remote learning nationwide as infections spiked.
For eight days starting Sunday, restaurants in the Seoul area are allowed to provide only deliveries and takeouts after 9 p.m. Franchised coffee shops like Starbucks will sell only takeout drinks and food.
10:13 a.m.: India registered 78,761 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the biggest single-day spike in the world since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the battered economy.
The surge raised India’s tally to over 3.5 million, and came as the government announced the reopening of the subway in New Delhi, the capital. It also will move ahead with limited sports and religious events next month.
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A country of 1.4 billion people, India now has the fastest-growing daily coronavirus caseload of any country in the world, reporting more than 75,000 new cases for four straight days.
One of the reasons is testing: India now conducts nearly 1 million tests every day, compared with just 200,000 two months ago.
10:12 a.m.: Back in early March, as Ontario’s colleges and universities scrambled to prepare for government shutdown orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Ilene Sova packed up as many art supplies as she could in anticipation of the months of isolation that would follow.
Sova, an instructor at OCAD University in Toronto, said art was her only remedy as the world became more distant and uncertain times emerged.
She would later turn her home office into a makeshift art studio and begin her creative process, but one thing she could not shake off was the thought of her students going through similar emotions.
“While I was making collages one day in early April, I realized that our students might also want to make art about this unprecedented time, and may also benefit from responding creatively,” Sova said in an interview.
That’s when the idea to create a course in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic was born, and Sova approached the school with her plans.
4 a.m.: The latest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 10:25 p.m. EDT on Aug. 29, 2020:
There are 127,673 confirmed cases in Canada.
-Quebec: 62,232 confirmed (including 5,755 deaths, 55,235 resolved)
-Ontario: 42,083 confirmed (including 2,809 deaths, 38,126 resolved)
- Alberta: 13,476 confirmed (including 237 deaths, 12,054 resolved)
- British Columbia: 5,496 confirmed (including 204 deaths, 4,310 resolved)
- Saskatchewan: 1,615 confirmed (including 24 deaths, 1,548 resolved)
- Manitoba: 1,151 confirmed (including 14 deaths, 693 resolved)
- Nova Scotia: 1,083 confirmed (including 65 deaths, 1,013 resolved)
- Newfoundland and Labrador: 269 confirmed (including 3 deaths, 265 resolved)
- New Brunswick: 191 confirmed (including 2 deaths, 183 resolved)
- Prince Edward Island: 44 confirmed (including 41 resolved)
- Yukon: 15 confirmed (including 15 resolved)
- Repatriated Canadians: 13 confirmed (including 13 resolved)
- Northwest Territories: 5 confirmed (including 5 resolved)
- Nunavut: No confirmed cases
Total: 127,673 (0 presumptive, 127,673 confirmed including 9,113 deaths, 113,501 resolved)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2020.
After rising to a record high last year in Canada, spending on home renovations fell off a cliff in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the months of lockdowns and the seemingly endless purgatory of working from home have Canadians once again opening up their wallets to make their temporary workplaces as tolerable as possible.
In a recent report, Toronto-based real estate consultancy Altus Group calculated that Canadians spent more than $80 billion on home improvements last year, a tally that outpaced growth in the overall economy.
And the year's home reno boom was especially impressive, considering that the sector shrank by more than five per cent the year before.
"If we go back to last spring, interest rates were tumbling, so we were riding quite high," CEO Peter Norman said in an interview with CBC News.
The $80.1 billion that Canadians spent on fixing up existing homes last year was more than they spent on new ones — and it was a big reason why businesses that tailor to that market were feeling hopeful that 2020 was going to be another strong year.
Then COVID-19 struck — and just as the pandemic had a negative impact on almost everything else in the economy, it brought that spending to a grinding halt. What was shaping up to be a strong year for renovations cooled off completely in March and April.
Altus Group is now forecasting that after a record 2019, spending on home renovations will fall in every province this year.
Norman said there's a delay of a few months in the data, so only now is there some sense of what sort of activity was taking place in May and June. But it seems that all those months cooped up at home compelled Canadians to move ahead with home reno projects they either weren't planning before or put on pause in March and April.
That's no surprise to Melanna Giannakis. As a branch manager with Meridian Credit Union, she said the activity at her branch in Fonthill, Ont., a community in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, mirrors the trends that Altus is seeing across the country: booming demand, followed by a complete deep freeze and now a resurgence.
Much of that activity is being paid for by homeowners borrowing against the equity in their property to tailor their house to the new reality of their lives.
"At the beginning of the pandemic, the annual growth rate of home equity lines of credit doubled and nearly tripled for personal use," Giannakis said in an interview.
Some of that money was likely used to pay the bills as incomes fell and job losses added up in the early days of March and April.
But a lot of it has been going to pay for home renovations.
"One of the main things I'm finding is people are less concerned about where they are living and more concerned with how they are living," Giannakis said.
The massive rise in the number of people working from home has changed the game for real estate, as millions of Canadians are now less tethered to downtown offices. That's leading to a real estate boom in remote, less dense environments.
Those staying put in urban centres want to spend money to make their homes better suited for them in the new reality, Giannakis said.
"People want more room and more space — home offices with nice backdrops for video conferencing, for example, home gyms, finished basements, backyards pools.... They want their own little hideaway they can hunker down in."
It's not just a Canadian trend, either. Bank of Montreal economist Sal Guatieri noted in a recent report that after plummetting in March and April, U.S. consumers are spending more than ever on their homes again. In June, spending on household furnishings, equipment and maintenance eclipsed $650 billion US in June and is now back above its pre-pandemic level.
"Telework has already spurred spending on home comfort," he said, especially for one type of renovation: home offices. "Demand for in-home office renovations looks to have risen sharply."
That's not to suggest that homeowners are spending willy-nilly. Norman cited Altus data showing that the number of homeowners planning renos costing at least $5,000 has declined compared with last year, but it's still rising from its March low.
While indications are that the reno market is recovering strongly, the decline was so steep that even with the current boom, it's unlikely that spending in 2020 will come out ahead of last year's strong pace.
"We do expect things to be a little bit subdued this year relative to the last year," Norman said.
"We just won't see that same rate of growth."
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — The BC Centre for Control issued COVID-19 exposure warnings for nine flights connected to Metro Vancouver Saturday.
Three of the flights either landed or took off from Abbotsford, while the other six arrive at or departed from Vancouver.
Air Canada, Swoop, and WestJet are the airlines affected, and the flights were all between August 14 and 24.
Anyone on one of these flights, particularly in affected rows, is asked to self-monitor for symptoms for two weeks.
The complete list of flights and rows is:
Aug 14: Swoop 200, Abbotsford to Edmonton, rows 25 to 31
Aug 17: Swoop 235, Edmonton to Abbotsford, rows 3 to 9
Aug 23: Swoop Flight 141, Hamilton to Abbotsford, rows 17 to 23
Aug 16: Air Canada 303, Montreal to Vancouver, rows 35 to 41
Aug 17: Alaska Airlines 3304, Seattle to Vancouver, rows 12 to 18
Aug 18: WestJet 3355, Vancouver to Victoria, Vancouver to Victoria, rows 8 to 14
Aug 21: Air Canada flight 8212, Prince George to Vancouver, rows 6 to 12
Aug 23: Air Canada Flight 128, Vancouver to Toronto, rows 19 to 25
Aug 24: WestJet Flight 138, Vancouver to Edmonton, rows 12 to 18
“The information available here is updated as we become aware of flights with an origin or destination in British Columbia with a case of COVID-19 on board. If you have travelled to/from other parts of Canada, and are concerned about potential in-flight exposure, please check for similar information posted on other provincial public health web sites,” according to the BCCDC.”
VANCOUVER -- The B.C. Centre for Disease Control added nine more flights involving B.C. airports to its list of possible COVID-19 exposures Saturday.
Eight of the flights added Saturday were domestic, and six of them involved Vancouver International Airport.
The domestic flights added are:
The BCCDC advises everyone who was on one of these flights to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19. Passengers who were seated in the rows specified are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus due to their proximity to the confirmed case or cases on that flight.
There was also one international flight added to the list: Alaska Airlines flight 3304 from Seattle to Vancouver on Aug. 17. Rows 12 to 18 are considered most at risk on that flight.
Everyone arriving in Canada from another country is required to self-isolate and monitor for symptoms for 14 days upon arrival.
The nine flights added to the BCCDC list Saturday bring the total number of flights involving B.C. airports with confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board in the month of August to 65.
B.C. health officials no longer directly contact people who were seated near a confirmed case of COVID-19 on a flight. Instead, the health authorities provide updates on flights with confirmed cases as they're made aware of them and post them online. The BCCDC's full list of flights with COVID-19 exposures can be found here.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Alyse Kotyk
VANCOUVER -- The B.C. Centre for Disease Control added nine more flights involving B.C. airports to its list of possible COVID-19 exposures Saturday.
Eight of the flights added Saturday were domestic, and six of them involved Vancouver International Airport.
The domestic flights added are:
The BCCDC advises everyone who was on one of these flights to self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19. Passengers who were seated in the rows specified are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus due to their proximity to the confirmed case or cases on that flight.
There was also one international flight added to the list: Alaska Airlines flight 3304 from Seattle to Vancouver on Aug. 17. Rows 12 to 18 are considered most at risk on that flight.
Everyone arriving in Canada from another country is required to self-isolate and monitor for symptoms for 14 days upon arrival.
The nine flights added to the BCCDC list Saturday bring the total number of flights involving B.C. airports with confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board in the month of August to 65.
B.C. health officials no longer directly contact people who were seated near a confirmed case of COVID-19 on a flight. Instead, the health authorities provide updates on flights with confirmed cases as they're made aware of them and post them online. The BCCDC's full list of flights with COVID-19 exposures can be found here.
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Alyse Kotyk
Elon Musk isn't content with electric cars, shooting people into orbit, populating Mars and building underground tunnels to solve traffic problems. He also wants to get inside your brain.
His startup, Neuralink, wants to one day implant computer chips inside the human brain. The goal is to develop implants that can treat neural disorders -- and that may one day be powerful enough to put humanity on a more even footing with possible future superintelligent computers.
Not that it's anywhere close to that yet.
In a video demonstration Friday explicitly aimed at recruiting new employees, Musk showed off a prototype of the device. About the size of a large coin, it's designed to be implanted in a person's skull. Ultra-thin wires hanging form the device would go directly into the brain. An earlier version of the device would have been placed behind an ear like a hearing aid.
But the startup is far from a having commercial product, which would involve complex human trials and FDA approval among many other things. Friday's demonstration featured three pigs. One, named Gertrude, had a Neuralink implant.
Musk, a founder of both the electric car company Tesla Motors and the private space-exploration firm SpaceX, has become an outspoken doomsayer about the threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race. Continued growth in AI cognitive capabilities, he and like-minded critics suggest, could lead to machines that can outthink and outmanoeuvr humans with whom they might have little in common. The proposed solution? Link computers to our brains so we can keep up.
Musk urged coders, engineers and especially people with experience having "shipped" (that is, actually created) a product to apply. "You don't need to have brain experience," he said, adding that this is something that can be learned on the job.
Hooking a brain up directly to electronics is not new. Doctors implant electrodes in brains to deliver stimulation for treating such conditions as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and chronic pain. In experiments, implanted sensors have let paralyzed people use brain signals to operate computers and move robotic arms. In 2016, researchers reported that a man regained some movement in his own hand with a brain implant.
But Musk's proposal goes beyond this. Neuralink wants to build on those existing medical treatments as well as one day work on surgeries that could improve cognitive functioning, according to a Wall Street Journal article on the company's launch.
While there are endless, outlandish applications to brain-computer interfaces -- gaming, or as someone on Twitter asked Musk, summoning your Tesla -- Neuralink wants to first use the device with people who have severe spinal cord injury to help them talk, type and move using their brain waves.
"I am confident that long term it would be possible to restore someone's full-body motion," said Musk, who's also famously said that he wants to "die on Mars, just not on impact."
Neuralink is not the only company working on artificial intelligence for the brain. Entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, who sold his previous payments startup Braintree to PayPal for US$800 million, started Kernel, a company working on "advanced neural interfaces" to treat disease and extend cognition, in 2016. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is also interested in the space. Facebook bought CTRL-labs, a startup developing non-invasive neural interfaces, in 2019 and folded it into Facebook's Reality Labs, whose goal is to "fundamentally transform the way we interact with devices."
That might be an easier sell than the Neuralink device, which would require recipients to agree to have the device implanted in their brain, possibly by a robot surgeon. Neuralink did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
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Protesters hold signs during the grand opening of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver on Feb. 28, 2017.
David Ryder/Reuters
The Vancouver hotel that bears the name of Donald Trump has closed and its hotel-management company has filed for bankruptcy after years of complaints from residents and politicians about the Trump presence in the city.
The website for the city’s Trump International Hotel now links only to the global site for Trump hotels, where the Vancouver property is no longer listed. No one answered the phone at the hotel’s main line.
Documents filed with the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy say that TA Hotel Management Limited Partnership filed for bankruptcy Aug. 26, stating it had total liabilities of $4.8-million and assets of only $1.1-million. A creditors’ meeting has been set for Sept. 16.
Owner Joo Kim Tiah, who announced the Trump deal in 2013, did not return a request for comment.
The disappearance of the hotel designed by prominent Vancouver architect Arthur Erickson was not lamented by some city residents.
“I think it’s cathartic for the city to see it gone. It’s always been inconsistent with our values,” said Brent Toderian, a former chief of planning for Vancouver. He has been vocal since the hotel opened in 2017 about how the Trump brand was an affront to a city known for its diversity and inclusion.
Former mayor Gregor Robertson was another who registered objections to the name early on and he declined to attend the opening.
Mr. Tiah is one of the directors of TA Hotel GP Ltd., which is listed as the only partner of TA Hotel Management. The latter company would be the entity that oversaw the non-condo portion of the building as part of its hotel-management agreement with the Trump Organization.
Experienced hotel operators in town say that the closing of the hotel is not likely to impact the overall operations of Mr. Tiah, who is the son of one of Malaysia’s wealthiest men and who has been a presence in Vancouver for almost a decade.
Mr. Tiah’s main development and real estate company, Holborn Group, also owns the Hudson’s Bay parkade downtown, a major development site and the large chunk of land in central Vancouver that was once home to the city’s oldest social-housing complex.
One of the city’s large-hotel operators and developers, Peter Wall, dismissed the idea that the Trump name hurt the hotel. Instead, he said that the Trump hotel was small by downtown luxury standards, with only 147 rooms, and that it would have struggled as a result. The hotel occupies only 15 storeys of the 63-storey building.
Mr. Wall runs the Sheraton-branded hotel he built on Burrard Street. He said Mr. Tiah’s company, Holborn, would have made most of its money from the sale of the 217 condos on the other floors of the building – a common phenomenon with recent hotels in Vancouver. The building included a high-end chain restaurant from Hong Kong, Mott 32, which also just posted a notice saying it is closed.
Mr. Wall said he hopes another hotel chain will plant its flag in the building soon. The Four Seasons chain, which had to leave its Pacific Centre building last year, has been searching for a site.
Vancouver had been suffering from a shortage of hotel rooms before the pandemic, and those in the industry had been lobbying the city to find ways to encourage more construction.
The head of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association said he believes that need is going to return.
“I would agree with others that [the Trump hotel situation] is more of an anomaly,” Charles Gauthier said. “Vancouver is going to be seen as a safe travel choice in the future. There is going to be a need for hotel rooms.”
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