Blog Day 151 - Saturday 22 August 2020

Who would have thought that when I published day one of the blog on March 24 2020 that 151 days later we would still be in lockdown that we would have a curfew, Melbourne would be surrounded by a "ring of steel", that we couldn't go more than 5 km from our homes, Australians would still be dying and so on.  We all thought that these circumstances were a possibility but surely they happened in other places, not Australia, not Melbourne.

Although the virus had been around for a while it was only in March that we in Australia started to take it seriously.  I recall that I was supposed to go away camping the weekend of 21 March and due to an escalation in the number of infections the week before I got cold feet and decided not to go.  That was when I got an inkling of what might be ahead of us and started to take the whole thing a bit more seriously.

So here we are 5 months later and the infections and deaths are still rolling on, although the figures are currently looking promising.  Still waiting on todays figures.

On my walk this morning I took a couple of photos of Centre Road, Bentleigh East at 11.15.  This is what a normally busy strip shopping centre looks like on a Saturday morning in a stage 4 lockdown.

At the halfway point of the 6 week stage 4 lockdown and the figures are looking promising.  Victoria recorded 182 new infection for the last 24 hours which is slightly higher than the previous 24 hour figure of 179.  I reckon there would be a few people in authority breathing sighs of relief at these figures and a general pattern of declining infections.  There were 13 deaths reported in the last 24 hours and 9 in the 24 hours prior.  It would appear that the hospitalisation figure is dropping at 610 Victorians in hospital, although these figures sometimes appear to be a bit rubbery, but are also showing a declining pattern.  There are 36 Victorians in intensive care and 22 on ventilators.

All in all the state figures all appear to be heading in the right direction.  Lets hope we don't let it go to our collective heads and start to relax again!

Unfortunately the worldwide figures aren't providing much in the way of good news.  Nearly 6,000 deaths worldwide in the last 24 hours has taken the total worldwide death figure to over 800,000.  Over 23 million people worldwide are infected or have been infected with the virus.  

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – Day 20

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	24,235	246	17,686	240	463	376	682	665	52	43
21/08	24,417	180	17,862	179	470	385	682	626	52	40
22/08	24,607	191	18,034	182	483	396	682	610	52	36
23/08

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
20/08	22,568,287	262,400	790,788	6,450
21/08	22,856,134	287,847	796,992	6,204
22/08	23,108,150	252,016	802,971	5,979
23/08

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