Blog Day 78: Tuesday 09 June 2020

I am back from my sojourn to Dromana.  Andrew and Katie rented an AirBnB property in Dromana for the long weekend and being a large house various family and friends visited, some stayed overnight, others visited for varying lengths of time.  Saturday afternoon and evening was mainly grazing on local cold meats, cheeses and delicacies and included a wine tasting.  The wine tasting was mainly local wines which meant the white wines were all chardonnays and the reds were all pinots, neither of which are my favourites, but being the trooper that I am I battled on through and ensured that I drank my share. 

Sunday was a roast pork lunch which in true Phillips/Kidd tradition was eaten at about 3.00pm.  Naturally enough lunch was accompanied by the appropriate drinks although some of the attendees were a little subdued, possibly due to being a little tired after the Saturday festivities.  It was a great weekend and it was good to be out and about and to actually see people in the flesh rather than on Zoom or the phone.  I must hasten to add that at all times the appropriate corona virus rules and regulations as to numbers and distances were observed.

When I drove home on the Monday I drove along the beach road from Dromana to Mornington and then up Main Street Mornington to the freeway.  There were people everywhere and there didn't appear to be a lot of effort going into maintaining the appropriate numbers in the cafes and coffee shops or maintaining the proper distancing on the path along the beach or on the footpath in Mornington.  I suppose people are thinking that if 10,000 people can gather in Melbourne in what was pretty much a government sanctioned event what difference does it make if we have 21 people in our cafe instead of 20.  Time will tell how that will all work out.

There is a very good article in The Age today titled "Inside the 24 Hours that Shaped Australia's Virus Battle".  It is part one of a two part series and covers the initial government response to the developing pandemic and the organisation and cooperation between the state and federal governments, well worth a read.

Let's have a look at the weekly world figures.  A bit of jostling for space at the top of the table, Belgium is still leading the deaths per million of population but the UK has replaced Spain in second place and Italy has dropped down to fourth.  Sweden has overtaken France for fifth spot.  Brazil had the highest number of deaths last week and is now only behind the USA and UK for total deaths reported.  New Zealand had no new infections or deaths last week and I see in the press that they are shortly removing all internal restrictions, although international travel restrictions are to stay in place for the time being.  Australia had 65 new infections, no new deaths and the number of deaths reduced by one due to the Queensland death being reclassified as non corona,

Corona Virus International Stats as at 09/06/2020
Country	Population	Infected No	Infected %	Deaths No	Deaths %	Deaths Increase No	Deaths Increase %	Deaths per Million Population
Belgium	11,500,000	59,348	0.5161	9,606	0.08353	139	1	835
UK	68,000,000	287,399	0.4226	40,597	0.05970	2,108	5	597
Spain	47,000,000	288,797	0.6145	27,136	0.05774	9	0	577
Italy	60,000,000	235,278	0.3921	33,964	0.05661	549	2	566
Sweden	10,000,000	45,133	0.4513	4,694	0.04694	299	7	469
France	65,000,000	154,188	0.2372	29,209	0.04494	407	1	449
USA	331,000,000	2,026,493	0.6122	113,055	0.03416	6,860	6	342
Brazil	213,000,000	710,887	0.3337	37,312	0.01752	7,998	27	175
World	7,800,000,000	7,193,988	0.0922	408,628	0.00524	34,770	9	52
Russia	146,000,000	476,658	0.3265	5,971	0.00409	1,278	27	41
South Africa	59,000,000	50,879	0.0862	1,080	0.00183	397	58	18
India	1,300,000,000	265,928	0.0205	7,473	0.00057	2,065	38	6
New Zealand	5,000,000	1,504	0.0301	22	0.00044	0	0	4
Australia	25,000,000	7,267	0.0291	102	0.00041	-1	-1	4

Victoria had nil reported new infections in the last 24 hours which I think is only the 2nd time that has happened since this pandemic thing began.  The majority of new infections being reported are now from returning overseas travellers which means that it is happening in a controlled environment and not being spread around the community, hopefully.  

Corona Virus Daily Stats: Day 155

Vic: 1,687 infected (+6 from last Friday 0 in the last 24 hours) - 19 deaths (increase 0)

Aus: 7,267 infected (+20 from last Friday) - 102 deaths (increase 0)

Recovered: 6,719

World: 7,113,060 infected - 406,402 deaths