Blog Day 148 - Wednesday 19 August 2020

Looks like some good news on the corona virus vaccine front.  The Federal Govt has done a deal with the developers of the Oxford University backed vaccine for it to be supplied to Australia once available for public use.  Once tested and approved the vaccine will be produced in Australia, most likely by CSL and will be rolled out in a managed process with the high risk groups and health workers getting priority.  The government has also done a deal with another supplier for 100 million needles and syringes. There is some suggestion that this vaccine could be available at the end of this year or early next year.

I daresay the next discussion will be whether it will be compulsory for everybody to be vaccinated.  Apparently to be successful there needs to be a 95% vaccination rate.

Now, lets see the anti vaxxers and associated nutters come out of the woodwork!

I see that Tasmania is planning on keeping its borders closed until at least early December.  Well, there goes my plans to visit my nearest and dearest.  How disappointed am I?

Encouraging figures in Victoria again today.  We recorded 216 new infections in the last 24 hours, this is now starting to set a pattern of continual reduction from 372 on 14/8.  We recorded 12 deaths which is also certainly an improvement over the recent figures.  A total of 675 Victorians are currently hospitalised which is an increase of 10, there are 44 people in ICU and 29 of them are on ventilators.

Still of concern is that there are still 3,751 cases in Victoria classified as "mystery cases", this is an increase of 82 in the last 24 hours.  A mystery case is one where the source of the infection is unknown. If the source of the infection is unknown it is obviously difficult to control.

The other source of concern is the drop off in the number of test being conducted each day. There was only about 16,000 tests yesterday.  You may recall that previously we have been testing in the mid to high 20,000s up to 30,000 plus per day.  One of the reasons for the lower number is that there are less people out and about but the government would like to see the testing figures increase.

 Following the pattern of there not being a pattern the international figures for both new infections and deaths are back up again.  I am more and more convinced that the variations in the world figures are as a result of poor record keeping and irregular reporting.  Further examination of the world figures tomorrow.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – Day 17

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	23,997	228	17,454	216	450	363	682	675	52	44
20/08

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	22,305,887	269,738	784,338	7,482

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, if you have to ask - the answer is no and be kind.