Blog Day 165  - Thursday 17 December 2020

Just a bit of a heads up, with various Christmassy things happening the blog may not be produced on a daily basis, don't worry if I miss a few episodes, I might be out having fun.

People are complaining about Australia Post being slow delivering Christmas mail, well I've got a good news story.  On Sunday (13/12) afternoon I ordered a back copy of the AWM's "Wartime" magazine and it was delivered by Australia Post yesterday, (16/12).  Can't complain about that.

The Ombudsman has released a report on the lockdown of the community housing high rise towers in North Melbourne (we aren't allowed to call them Housing Commission flats any more) during the darkest days of the corona virus lockdowns.  Unsurprisingly the Ombudsman has stated that the lockdown was a breach of the residents human rights.

I hear that there are a couple of buses parked in Bourke street in the CBD, one for human rights lawyers and the other for class action lawyers - both with North Melbourne as the destination.  Further buses are on hand if required.

Here is another funny thing.  The premier has cancelled the Australia Day parade in the CBD on 26 January 2021 due to corona virus restrictions, however the Chinese New Year celebrations a week later in the same city, with similar attendance have been given approval to proceed.  And a month before that at least 25,000 people were allowed to assemble at the MCG to watch a cricket match.

I will let you muse on that one.

NSW identified 3 new community transmissions yesterday and as at 1.00pm today they have identified another two.  One of the three yesterday was the bus driver I mentioned yesterday, but the other two are two related people from the Northern Beaches of Sydney who have no known contact with a symptomatic carrier.  Unfortunately these two people failed to isolate after they were tested and received their results and possibly as an outcome of this is at least a further two people have been infected in that area.  Testing and tracing is being ramped up in the Northern Beaches in an attempt to limit the spread.

It also appears that one of the infectious people works in an aged care facility.  

Victoria had another day of zeroes including returned travellers, there were 10 new cases Australia wide including 9 in NSW of which only 6 were returned travellers and one in Qld who was a returned traveller.  This was from 9,500 tests in Victoria, 10,600 tests in NSW and nearly 3,000 in Qld.

Currently there are 49 active cases Australia wide (none in Victoria) and 45 of these are returned travellers.

Worldwide in the last week there were 5.2m new virus infections reported and 79,000 deaths reported.  This is nearly one million more new infections than the previous week and 3,000 more deaths than the previous week.

The USA, Brazil and Mexico reported similar infection numbers and deaths to last week with India reporting a significant drop in the number of new infections from 229,000 to 192,000 and a reduction in deaths for the week from 3,100 to 2,800.  

These four countries accounted for 40% of the new infections for the week, down from 48% the previous week and 37% of the deaths, the same percentage as last week.

Spain, Italy and France reported similar figures in both new infections and deaths to last week.  The exception was the UK who reported 136,000 new infections for the week, an increase from 108,000 the previous week.  The UK's new death figures for the week at 2,900 is only slightly more than the previous week.

These four countries account for 7.5% of the new infections for the week down from 8% the previous week and 15% of the deaths for the week, the same as the previous week.

I have again listed below the top countries by death per million with last week's figure in brackets, I have added in some other countries that have jumped into the top 10 and left my original countries in for comparison.  The observant of you will all notice that with the exception of Czechia all the new countries are from that delightful part of Europe known as the Balkans. (A usual I have excluded the micro countries and included Australia and New Zealand for comparison purposes); 

1. Belgium                 1,565    (1,508)   deaths per million of population
2. Peru                      1,111      (1,099)  
3. Italy                       1,101     (1,022)
4. Bosnia                  1,073
5. Slovenia               1,053
6. North Macedonia 1,053
7. Spain                   1,039  (1,005)
8. Montenegro            971
9. UK                          963 (919)
10. USA                        947 (894)
11. Czechia                  922
12. Argentina                911 (886) 
13. France                    908 (867)
14. Bulgaria                  895
15. Mexico                   888 (856) 
16. Brazil                      862 (840)   

        Australia  35

        NZ            05

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Day 11 – Covid Safe Summer 

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
7/12	27,972	7	20,345	0	908	820	29	0	0	0
8/12	27,984	12	20,345	0	908	820	38	0	0	0
9/12	27,992	8	20,345	0	908	820	32	0	0	0
10/12	28,000	8	20,345	0	908	820	34	0	0	0
11/12	28,009	9	20,345	0	908	820	38	0	0	0
12/12	28,024	12	20,350	5	908	820	39	0	0	0
13/12	28,029	4	20,351	1	908	820	35	0	0	0
14/12	28,037	6	20,352	1	908	820	34	0	1	0
15/12	28,045	6	20,352	0	908	820	29	0	1	0
16/12	28,060	12	20,352	0	908	820	29	0	1	0
17/12	28,069	10	20,351	0	908	820	25	0	1	0

Country	Population	Infected No	Infected Increase	Deaths No	Deaths Increase No	Deaths per Million Population
Belgium	11,500,000	611,422	16,850	18,178	671	1581
UK	68,000,000	1,913,277	136,458	65,520	2,954	964
Spain	47,000,000	1,782,566	57,093	48,596	1,487	1034
Italy	60,000,000	1,888,144	117,995	66,537	4,798	1109
Sweden	10,000,000	348,585	43,792	7,802	506	780
France	65,000,000	2,409,062	84,846	59,361	2,713	913
USA	331,000,000	17,359,800	1,541,832	314,343	17,706	950
Brazil	213,000,000	7,042,695	312,577	183,822	4,790	863
Mexico	129,000,000	1,267,202	73,947	115,099	4,225	892
South Africa	59,000,000	883,687	55,344	23,827	1,253	404
Russia	146,000,000	2,734,454	193,255	48,564	3,846	333
World	7,800,000,000	74,481,791	5,272,375	1,654,054	79,328	212
India	1,300,000,000	9,954,769	192,443	144,487	2,752	111
Australia	25,000,000	28,056	63	908	0	36
New Zealand	5,000,000	2,100	12	25	0	5

Corona Virus International Stats as at 17/12/2020

Remember: Wear your mask when you are buying your Bunnings sausage; no holidays in Britain for a while yet; be careful planning your computer upgrades (my most recent upgrade cost me $1,400); somebody is probably checking your poo; if in doubt get tested (it doesn't hurt, honestly); get the catgut strings in your tennis racket checked; as from 11.59pm tonight you can have a beer at the bar; keep an eye out for Germans with funny little moustaches; don't let possum pee rot your woodwork, beer comes in slabs not crates; if you visit Melbourne don't check into a "hot hotel"; don't bet on a sure thing in the US elections; only 7 shopping days to Christmas, inc today.