Blog Day 147 - Tuesday 18 August 2020

Some interesting information out of the the corona virus enquiry.  Apparently 99% of the 2nd wave infections are as a result of the quarantine breaches at two of the quarantine hotels in Melbourne. Ninety per cent of the infections are as a result of the breach at the Rydges hotel and 9% from the Stanford Plaza. Obviously a lot more to come out about all of this as the enquiry continues.

Although the number of new virus infections is declining on a day to day basis there is some concern in the medical fraternity that it isn't happening as quickly as they would have liked given the restrictions of the stage 4 lockdown.  

Just finished my Shrine volunteer zoom meeting.  Today is Vietnam Veterans Day and is also the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan.  In normal times there would have been a service at the Shrine, however in these not normal times there was no public service.  In our Zoom meeting the discussion centered around the Vietnam war.  One of the volunteer attendees is a Vietnam veteran and many of us grew up during the Vietnam war and knew people or had relatives who served in Vietnam either as regular army or conscripts.  It was a lively and interesting discussion.  

For your information I was in the last national service ballot in the second half of 1972.  My number wasn't drawn so I wasn't called up.  However, due to the election of Gough Whitlam in December '72 that intake didn't go in anyway.  (One of Whitlam's first actions on election was to cancel national service). Subsequent to that, in 1973 I joined the CMF (Citizens Military Forces - part time army) initially in 6th Field Ambulance and after that 5 RVR (5th Battalion Royal Victoria Regiment).  The story of my military service might be a topic for a Virus Free Friday.  

Two hundred and twenty two new infections reported in Victoria in the last 24 hours. This is our lowest figure since 18 July, it is also our third day in a row of less than 300 daily infections.  Unfortunately 17 Victorians dies in the last 24 hours resulting in a total number of deaths in Victoria of 351.  To date Australia has recorded 438 virus deaths.  There are 665 Victorians in hospital due to the virus, 45 of them in ICU and 32 of them on ventilators.

The world figures seem to have stabilized a bit and may even be reducing.  The last two days new infections have been 220,000 or less compared to previous figures in the 260,000 plus range.  Similarly deaths have declined over the last couple of days.  But as we have seen before the world figures are inconsistent and subject to irregularities in their reporting.  It would be nice to see a couple of more days of decline before getting too excited.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – Day 16

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
02/08	17,920	685	11,557	671	208	123	366	385	44	38
03/08	18,318	444	11,937	429	221	136	408	416	46	35
04/08	18,728	451	12,335	439	232	147	439	456	43	38
05/08	19,444	740	13,035	725	247	162	483	538	44	42
06/08	19,890	483	13,469	471	255	170	566		51
07/08	20,270	461	13,867	450	266	181	600	607	52	41
08/08	20,697	475	14,283	466	278	193	632	636	51	44
09/08	21,084	412	14,659	394	295	210	659	634	53	43
10/08	21,397	337	14,957	322	314	229	657	640	51	47
11/08	21,713	353	15,251	331	332	247	664	650	54	47
12/08	22,127	428	15,646	410	352	267	673	662	51	43
13/08	22,417	290	15,924	278	361	275	685	664	51	37
14/08		387	16,234	372	372	289		659		41
15/08	23,035	312	16,517	303	379	293	680	661	47	41
16/08	23,287	284	16,764	279	396	309	680	662	47	40
17/08	23,576	289	17,046	282	421	334	680	657	47	44
18/08	23,783	225	17,249	222	438	351	674	665	51	45
19/08

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
13/08	20,794,831	273,187	752,372	6,454
14/08	21,080,357	285,526	753,467	1,095
15/08	21,343,945	263,588	763,119	9,652
16/08	21,604,192	260,247	768,739	5,620
17/08	21,824,805	220,613	773,032	4,293
18/08	22,036,149	211,344	776,856	3,824
19/08

And now the State of Disaster remembers;

Remember: to stay indoors between 8.00pm and 5.00am, stay safe & stay strong, respect the 5km limits, don't try & get a haircut, drink your coffee at home, don't dither at the supermarket checkout, don't get Jim's Mowing in to cut your grass, get some virus approved exercise, shop at Harvey Norman for good service, be honest, if in doubt wear a mask and a face shield, remember the fallen, get plenty of sleep, laugh at my jokes, have a virtual beer with a Vietnam vet and be kind.