Indoor gatherings, backyard BBQs driving COVID-19 transmission in B.C. Interior | Globalnews.ca

Indoor gatherings and backyard barbeques are driving transmission of COVID-19 in B.C.’s Interior, the regional health authority’s top doctor said on Thursday.

Dr. Albert de Villiers, Interior Health’s chief medical health officer, called the source of the spread locally “sporadic.”

“It’s kind of all over the place. We’ve had some with people not keeping to the rules, in smaller clusters in household or backyard barbeques. We have not seen outbreaks in restaurants, we haven’t seen big workplace outbreaks either. It’s really sporadic and all over the place,” de Villiers said.

Source: Indoor gatherings, backyard BBQs driving COVID-19 transmission in B.C. Interior | Globalnews.ca

Study: COVID much more likely than vaccines to cause blood clots | CIDRAP

COVID-19—the actual disease—poses 8 to 10 times the threat of blood clots in the brain than do coronavirus vaccines, a large, non–peer-reviewed study led by University of Oxford researchers finds.

The study, published today on the preprint server OSF, involved an electronic health records network of 81 million patients at 59 healthcare systems, mainly in the United States.

Source: Study: COVID much more likely than vaccines to cause blood clots | CIDRAP

Most Global Food Brands Continue to Have a Dismal Record on Beef and Deforestation – Yale E360

The group said that despite beef production being the leading cause of global deforestation, only four companies — Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Carrefour, and McDonalds — are taking steps to stop purchasing beef from destructive suppliers. The remaining 11 food companies surveyed, including U.S.-based Costco, are not taking the necessary steps to stop procuring beef from suppliers with a poor record of sourcing cattle from deforested areas in the Amazon and elsewhere, Mighty Earth said.

Source: Most Global Food Brands Continue to Have a Dismal Record on Beef and Deforestation – Yale E360

COVID: Bangladesh faces vaccine shortage as India halts exports | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 14.04.2021

Bangladesh’s COVID vaccination efforts have been hit hard after India halted coronavirus vaccine shipments. India has paused exports during a surge in new infections and a rising death toll.

Source: COVID: Bangladesh faces vaccine shortage as India halts exports | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 14.04.2021

India: Hindu festival turns to superspreader event as COVID infections soar | Coronavirus and Covid-19 – latest news about COVID-19 | DW | 15.04.2021 (Me: Lack of courageous leadership to control pandemic is itself – pandemic) 

India’s coronavirus infection rates are rising exponentially, with the country registering over 200,000 new infections over the last 24 hours — twice as many as 10 days prior.

Experts say the harrowing trend can be traced back to two factors — extremely virulent mutations of the original virus, and the country’s lax approach to restrictions on daily life to slow the spread of infection.

India is also struggling with vaccine shortages and has administered just 114 million jabs so far for a population of over 1 billion.

Now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi has ordered the country’s Serum Institute — a key global vaccine supplier — to stop exporting doses in order to vaccinate Indians first.

However, politicians are also wary of imposing nationwide lockdowns, cognizant of the devastating economic effect of the last lockdown in Spring 2020.

The state of Maharashtra and its capital, Mumbai, and the national capital, Delhi, are among a handful of regional governments that have imposed new restrictions.

Officials have so far refused to reimpose limits after they were almost entirely done away with at the beginning of 2021. As a result, crowds have flocked to sporting, political and religious events in huge numbers.

Source: India: Hindu festival turns to superspreader event as COVID infections soar | Coronavirus and Covid-19 – latest news about COVID-19 | DW | 15.04.2021