Blog Day 209 - Wednesday 21 October 2020

Walked past the barber shop again today , still 10 or so people waiting inside and outside for a haircut and four barbers cutting away.  So, I am still a bit scruffy.

Of a little concern is that the one case reported yesterday has now been declared as a reinfection.  Yesterday there was doubt as to whether it was a reinfection or a lingering remnant of a previous infection.  However as it is now being treated as a reinfection it means that this person has caught the virus twice.  Apparently this is extremely rare but what does it mean for the concept of acquired immunity?

A little backflip by the government today.  Yesterday the government gave the Moonee Valley racecourse the OK to have 500 guests attend Saturday's running of the Cox Plate, this number in addition to the 750 or so staff, media etc who would normally attend to facilitate the running of the meeting.  You may be aware that horse racing has continued in this state through the pandemic but under strict restrictions and with no public in attendance.

After this was announced, and I think that at one stage the 500 lucky attendees were even described as VIPs, there was a bit of a public backlash.  Remember that this will be on the same day that the AFL grand final is being played in Brisbane and Melbournites can't even go to a mate's place to watch the footy on tellie, let alone go to a pub or restaurant or even a racetrack.

The government has reversed the decision and the only people at the Cox Plate will be those who are essential to the running of the meeting.  Must be sending a shiver down the spine of the VRC who still has some faint hopes of getting some of the public along for Melbourne Cup day.

The less said about the CHO and his failure to produce documents to the enquiry the better.  I think that he was only person left in the premier's gang that we all trusted and now he has proven to be as bad as the rest of them, tell us it ain't so Brett.

In spite of all the shenanigans the figures are still looking good although the last 24 hours infection figures were a 300% increase on the previous day.  This isn't as bad as it looks, the figures went from 1 to 3 new infections.  (Shows what you can do with lies, damn lies and statistics).  No new deaths recorded in Victoria in the last 24 hours with the death figure remaining at 817 and nationally at 905.  There are 11 Victorians in hospital due to the virus and none in ICU, although I don't think that these figures have been updated from the previous day.

The rolling 14 day average is still looking good;

20/10: Metro 6.4, Regional .4, Total 6.8

21/10: Metro 6.2, Regional .4, Total 6.6

Worldwide the figures are getting worse with 392,000 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours, that's in one day folks, and over 6,500 deaths in one day. Thank goodness for our isolated island continent.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Stage 4 Lockdown – 3rd Step Restrictions – Day 03

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
18/10	27,385	7	20,319	2	904	816	18	12	0	0
19/10	27,399	8	20,323	4	905	817	16	12	1	0
20/10	27,405	6	20,320	1	905	817	16	11	1	0
21/10	27,443	14	20,324	3	905	817	17	11	1	0
22/10

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
18/10	39,937,065	364,022	1,114,183	5,113
19/10	40,268,496	331,431	1,118,294	4,111
20/10	40,648,527	380,031	1,122,992	4,698
21/10	41,040,619	392,092	1,129,591	6,599
22/10

And now the stage 4 lockdown 3rd step restrictions remembers;

Remember: we still can't walk into a bar and get a beer; no matter how hard we try sometimes the figures just don't add up; if you are subpoenaed to produce documents to produce all of them!.