Blog Day 153 - Monday 24 August 2020

Some of the more astute amongst you may have noticed that up to day 153 of the blog I have not mentioned that great opiate of the masses..........the footy......that's right and I am not about to start now.

I have deliberately refrained from making any comment about any of the matters arising from the enquiry into the hotel quarantine fiasco. There will be a time and a place for that.  However today I am going to make a brief exception.  I really feel sorry for the poor bugger from the Forestry department (or some such government department) who was appointed as the "responsible officer" at one of the quarantine hotels.  He was given training in "diversity and cultural awareness" but no training in managing a quarantine situation or even the use of PPE.  Gives you an idea of this government's and it public service's priorities and why we are in such a mess.  

Maybe this sort of ideology was one of the reasons the ADF wasn't called in until the last minute, lets hope this gets its own inquiry one day. 

Something else I noticed today, The Age is now spelling indigenous with a capital I, when did this start?

Qantas has stated today that their international flights will be grounded until at least the middle of 2021 and the GM of international travel has been given the heave ho.  I wonder what he has been doing for the last five months?

Now for some good news.  Victoria reported 116 new infections for the last 24 hours, down from 208 the previous day.  This is the lowest figure from before 7 July, when I started to record the daily figures.  Lets hope that it isn't a statistical anomaly or a blip in the testing and counting.  The chief health officer seemed to be heartened by the figure.  Victoria recorded 15 deaths taking our total to 430 deaths.  The national total is 517, therefore Victoria has recorded 83% of the national deaths.  Of the 15 Victorian deaths 3 females and 5 males were in their 80's, 4 females and 2 males in their 90's and 1 female in her 100's.  All 15 were in the aged care system.

The number of infections and deaths internationally are down. The last few weeks has shown that the Monday figures are usually a bit lower and then bounce back up over the next few days.  As I have said before I don't think that the counting and reporting internationally is as accurate over the weekend as it should be.  If the figures prove me wrong I will be the first to apologise.  Now there is something that you won't hear me say very often.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – Day 23

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	24,811	204	18,231	208	502	415	631	585	43	32
24/08	24,915	120	18,330	116	517	430	604	629	39	31
25/08

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	23,379,006	270,856	808,681	5,710
24/08	23,582,985	203,979	812,487	3,806

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, act responsibly, apologise if you are wrong and be kind.