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An Odissi Dancer Charts New Paths on the Met Museum

An Odissi Dancer Charts New Paths at the Met Museum

She also spent time at the Astor Chinese Garden Court, the Islamic Art Galleries and the Cloisters. Between these visits, Satpathy returned to India, where, in the quiet of her rehearsal room, she composed solos that drew on the sensations she had felt in the museum’s rooms. “The memories stayed with me,” she says.

In developing her choreographic ideas, she worked mainly virtually with a composer, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, and a dramaturge, Poorna Swami, both of whom pursue interests beyond the world of Indian classical music and dance. Narayanaswamy has worked extensively in the film field; and Swami has a degree in Contemporary Dance from Mount Holyoke College.

In addition to suggesting literary texts that could stimulate their imaginations, Swami also urged Satpathy to go beyond the usual rules of Odissi, a highly codified form involving a decorative use of the body, specific geometries of the stage and a transparent relationship with the music appreciates . Swami encouraged Satpathy to move in silence or against the music; to engage directly with art; allow yourself to be less than perfect.

“She’s the devil’s advocate,” Satpathy said. She was also an extra pair of eyes. “I would give her very honest feedback,” Swami said in a phone call from Austin, Texas, where she received her PhD. “I would point out things that weren’t working and ask them, ‘What are you trying to do?'”

“It was hard on the ego,” admitted Satpathy. But over time, she got used to going beyond the familiar. “Linear was my way, middle was my way, front was my way. But now I had to find a new way to justify the progression of the movement.” In her solos at the Met last May, she created intimate tableaus and paths through the gallery spaces where there was no clear front and movements not necessarily in perfect symmetry were executed.

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Health

Charts present how far delta variant has unfold all over the world

Charts show how far delta variant has spread around the world

A sign warning people to stay separated due to Covid-19 can be seen in Mevagissey, UK on July 29, 2021.

Finnbarr Webster | Getty Images News | Getty Images

More than a year after the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is struggling with a highly transmissible Delta variant, which has led to a renewed increase in infections in countries from the UK and the US. to those in Africa and Asia.

The Delta variant, which was first discovered in India last October, has been found in more than 130 countries around the world, according to the World Health Organization.

Delta is the most commonly transmitted variant of the coronavirus, which first appeared in China in late 2019, said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, epidemiologist and technical director for Covid-19 at the WHO.

“The virus itself is, as it begins, a dangerous virus, a highly transmissible virus. The Delta variant is even more – it is twice more transmissible than the ancestral strain, it is 50% more transmissible than the Alpha strain, ”she said at a WHO press conference last week.

The alpha variant was first discovered in Great Britain

Globally, the number of reported Covid-19 cases exceeded 200 million on Wednesday and more than 4.2 million people have died from it, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University showed.

Delta variant prevalence

Delta is one of four “Concerning Variants” listed by the WHO. Such variants are considered to be more contagious, more resistant to current vaccines and treatments, or could cause more serious illness.

The delta variant has become the dominant Covid-19 pathogen in many countries.

According to genetically sequenced coronavirus samples collected by GISAID, around 65 countries have discovered cases of Covid caused by the Delta variant in the four weeks leading up to August 5.

GISAID is a platform for scientists to share information about viruses, and their data is widely used by the global scientific community, including the WHO.

Data on the prevalence of the Covid Delta variant likely underestimate the real situation as some countries do not share sequenced samples with GISAID, while others may not have the ability and resources to perform virus sequencing.

In 55 of these countries, the delta variant accounted for more than half of the virus samples submitted, according to data compiled by GISAID.

Effectiveness of the vaccine

The Covid Delta variant has not spared countries with some of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

Israel, where more than 62% of the population is fully vaccinated, reported an increase in daily cases last month as Delta became the dominant strain in the country.

When the Delta variant spread in Israel, the Ministry of Health found that the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine dropped to just 39% with two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, although protection against serious illnesses remained high. The country has started giving booster shots to people over the age of 60.

But a study in the UK, where the Delta variant is also fueling a surge in infections, found that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech or the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine were almost as effective against Delta as against the Alpha variant.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, used real world data and found that two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine were 88% effective against the Delta variant. That’s compared to 93.7% versus the Alpha strain, it said.

According to the study, the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was found to be 67% effective against Delta, compared to 74.5% effectiveness against the Alpha variant.

However, vaccination progress has remained inconsistent around the world. Many poorer developing countries are lagging behind due to their lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines.

On Wednesday, WHO urged rich nations to stop distributing booster vaccines, highlighting global injustice in vaccines.

Aside from getting more people vaccinated, WHO’s Van Kerkhove said there are steps individuals can take to better protect themselves from the Delta variant. That includes wearing a mask, keeping your hands clean, and spending more time outdoors than indoors, she said last week.

“This won’t be the last variant of the virus you will hear us talk about,” she added. “The virus is likely to become more transmissible because viruses do just that – they evolve, they change over time, and so we have to do everything we can to contain it.”

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Health

Charts present the severity of the second wave

Charts show the severity of the second wave

A woman wearing a protective face mask walks past graffiti amid the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on a street in Mumbai, India, on March 30, 2021.

Francis Mascarenhas | Reuters

India’s second wave of Covid-19 infections shows no signs of slowing as the country’s overstretched health system faces supply shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, drugs and vaccines.

The World Health Organization said last week that every third new coronavirus case worldwide is reported in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has been criticized for allowing large crowds to gather for religious festivals and election campaigns in different parts of the country. Commentators said the mass gatherings have likely turned into super-spreader events.

The second wave cases increased in February when India reported an average of 10,000 infections per day. However, in April the situation worsened and ended the month repeatedly setting new global records for daily cases. India started May reporting more than 400,000 new cases.

Nearly 7 million cases were reported during the month, a large fraction of the more than 19 million cases India has seen throughout the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

Scientists say the increase in cases is partly due to variants of the coronavirus currently circulating in India.

“There are at least two major dominant variants, one is a British variant and one is an Indian variant,” Manoj Murhekar, director of the National Institute for Epidemiology, Chennai, told CNBC on Friday.

The Indian government reportedly said last month that 80% of the cases in Punjab are due to the highly contagious British variant known as B.1.1.7.

The Indian variant is now known as B.1.617 and has several sublines with slightly different characteristic mutations. The WHO classified it as a variant of interest in their epidemiological update on the pandemic last week.

Maharashtra, home to India’s financial capital Mumbai, is the hardest hit state and the epicenter for the second wave.

India’s richest state was put on hold in mid-April to break the chain of transmission. The Maharashtra government reportedly extended the restrictions until May 15.

Murhekar told CNBC that very little is currently known about what proportion of infected cases are due to a variant. He said India needs to step up its surveillance for variants so that it has meaningful data from every region and state that has variants circulating in each region.

Since the start of its mass vaccination campaign in January, India has administered more than 154 million doses of vaccine as of April 30, according to the government.

This means that just over 10% of the population received at least one of the two required shots. However, the percentage of people who completed their vaccination is only about 2% of the total population, and it was around 27.9 million in April.

From May, India will open vaccinations for people over the age of 18.

Murhekar said the kind of herd immunity India needs to reduce transmission can only be achieved through vaccination.

“It will basically take many days and many months before we have a critical mass vaccinated against Covid,” he added.

However, the country is facing vaccine shortages and several states have reportedly run out of supplies.

The supply crisis is expected to last through July, according to the CEO of Serum Institute, a leading Indian vaccine maker that makes AstraZeneca’s shot. Adar Poonawalla recently told the Financial Times that his company would increase vaccine production capacity from about 60 million to 70 million doses per month to 100 million.

The other vaccine that is being given is Covaxin from Bharat Biotech.

New Delhi recently approved Sputnik V, developed in Russia, and approved overseas-made vaccines that have received emergency clearances from the U.S., UK, European Union, Japan and World Health Organization-listed agencies.

– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

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Health

Charts present how Pfizer’s vaccine is working

UK hospitals use blockchain to track coronavirus vaccine temperature

1.8 ml sodium chloride is added to a vial of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine concentrate ready for administration at Guy’s Hospital at the start of the largest vaccination program in UK history on December 8, 2020 in London, UK.

Victoria Jones – Pool | Getty Images

LONDON – New data from England has shown how effective coronavirus vaccines are in fighting the disease, even after just one dose.

In December, the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech became the first vaccine to be approved and launched in the UK

The elderly, health workers and nursing home workers were the first to be vaccinated. This was soon followed by the shot developed by the British company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, another vaccine that requires two doses.

Infection control

Figures in a research report by Public Health England released Monday, but pending peer review, showed Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are highly effective in reducing Covid infections in people aged 70 and over.

Since the study began in January, protection against symptomatic Covid four weeks after the first dose has ranged between 57% and 61% for the Pfizer vaccine and between 60% and 73% for the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The effectiveness of the vaccine in the data for Public Health England is calculated using a mathematical ratio. Click here for full data and methods.

Reduce hospital stays and deaths

The study, which included data from over 7.5 million people, also found that a single dose offered additional protection against hospitalizations and death.

It is said that coronavirus cases in vaccinated people had about half the risk of severe outcomes compared to non-vaccinated cases. It combined this with estimates of their effectiveness against symptomatic disease and predicted that a single dose of either vaccine would be about 80% effective in preventing hospitalization in the elderly about three to four weeks after the first dose.

It has also been suggested that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is 85% effective in preventing death from Covid-19 in those over 80.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock called the results “very strong”.

“They could also help explain why the number of Covid ICU admissions for people over 80 in the UK has dropped to single digits in recent weeks,” he said.

UK policymakers feel vindicated after deciding to postpone the second dose to around three months in order to vaccinate more people with a first dose faster. Experts in the US hesitated with the strategy, and White House chief medical officer Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that “there are risks on both sides”.

As of Sunday, 20,275,451 Brits have received their first dose of vaccine and 815,816 have received both doses, government data said.

The UK vaccination program was widely hailed as a triumph amid tragedy. The UK has the fifth highest number of infections in the world after the US, India, Brazil and Russia, with nearly 4.2 million infections and over 123,000 deaths. This is the fifth highest number of deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

—CNBC’s Bryn Bache contributed to this article.

Explanation: This story has been updated to better reflect the vaccine effectiveness calculations.

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Health

Charts present how vaccines are working

Charts show how vaccines are working

Pharmacist Murtaza Abdulkarim (L) administers a dose of the AstraZeneca / Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at the Al-Abbas Islamic Center in Birmingham, West Midlands on February 4, 2021 at a temporary vaccination center manned by pharmacists and pharmacist assistants.

Oli Scarff | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – The first real data from the UK vaccination program has given some insight into the effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19.

Developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the vaccine was the first vaccine to be approved and launched in the UK in December. Those over 80, health workers and nursing home staff were the first to be vaccinated. This was soon followed by the shot developed by the Briton AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

Here are four charts summarizing how effective these vaccines are and how they are doing their part in fighting the pandemic:

Falling deaths in those over 85

Since older people were the first to be vaccinated from December 8th, it is noticeable that deaths from Covid are falling the fastest in these age groups. The graph below shows deaths from Covid in Scotland, with a decline in the over-85 group as the vaccination program gained momentum. Click here for the full details.

An increase in antibodies

A blood test published last week by Imperial College London found that nearly 14% of the UK population now have antibodies to the coronavirus. While this does not necessarily mean immunity, the results of the people vaccinated and the level of their antibody levels were interesting. 18,000 participants in the 155,000-person study were vaccinated and the results are shown in the table below. Click here for the full details.

A separate study in England found that the highest percentage of people who tested positive for antibodies was aged 80 and over, at 41%, which, according to statisticians, “is most likely due to the high vaccination rate in this group”.

The real effectiveness of the Pfizer shot

Public Health England has done a thorough study of how effective the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has been in protecting against symptomatic disease. The table below shows that a dose is 57% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 disease in people over 80 years of age (from 28 days after the first dose).

The effectiveness of the vaccine is calculated using a mathematical statistic called the odds ratio. Click here for full data and methods.

… and the AstraZeneca vaccine

Public Health Scotland also collected data on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all ages. The graph shows that the Pfizer BioNTech and Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines reduce the risk of Covid-19 hospitalization by up to 85% and 94%, respectively, in the fourth week after receiving a first dose. Click here for the dates and the full methodology.

Since the start of the vaccination rollout, the UK has targeted all four key priority groups. The goal is now to vaccinate all over 50s by mid-April and all adults by the end of July, two months ahead of an earlier goal.

As of Sunday, over 20 million people had received their first vaccine dose and nearly 800,000 had received both doses, government data said.

The UK vaccination program was widely hailed as a triumph amid tragedy. The UK has the fifth highest number of infections in the world after the US, India, Brazil and Russia with over 4.1 million registered infections and 123,083 deaths. This is the fifth highest number of deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.

—CNBC’s Bryn Bache contributed to this article.