Blog Day 325 - Monday 15 February 2021

Why did the scarecrow win an award?  Because he was outstanding in his field!

If you didn't think that the joke above was funny, I've got another one for you.  Less than one month after his inauguration as US president sleepy joe has lost one of the senior members of his administration.  Biden's deputy press secretary, T J Ducklo, has resigned after being suspended for threatening a female reporter in a sexist and threatening manner.  Of course the article about Ducklo's misogynist behaviour was hidden away in page 19 of The Age.  If this had been one of President Trump's staffers it would have been front page news, the butt of jokes on the Panel, any number of opinion pieces in the Age and Guardian and the lead item on the ABC news.  What is the betting that we hear nothing further of it, can't threaten the Biden administration's wokedness (is that a word?), can we.

Last night a meteor was seen thrusting its way across Melbourne's night sky.  In earlier less enlightened and more superstitious days this would have been seen as a harbinger of doom and the good peasants would have paid a priest to sacrifice a goat or a virgin or two to ward of the impending disaster.  Probably difficult to impose any further doom on us than we already have, apart from a further term of office for the premier.  If that happens we will be praying for the meteor to hit us, possibly even sacrifice a goat and a virgin if that would help.

Due to some community transmission of the virus in NZ the Australia NZ travel bubble has been suspended for a few days to let things settle down a bit.

Neither the premier or the CHO would confirm that the current lockdown in Victoria would be lifted at 11.59pm on Wednesday night.  Both claim what happens will depend on the figures at the time.

Staff and stall holders at the Victoria Market have been told to get tested for the virus and to go into 14 day isolation after the fruit and vegie part of the market was visited by a women who later tested positive to the virus. We will have to keep an eye on those Irish fruit and vegie stall holders.

The first shipment of 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine has landed on our fair shores. Lets hope they can be started to be distributed asap.

Victoria in the last 24 hours reported 2 new infections, one local transmission from the Holiday Inn cluster and one ROTs.  The marketing people reckon that all publicity is good publicity, does anybody believe that this is good publicity for Holiday Inn, I don't.

Victoria had the only two new infections Australia wide in the last 24 hours.  This came from the results of 25,100 tests in Victoria, 15,700 in NSW and 5,600 in Qld.  Vic is certainly ramping up it's testing regime.

Currently Victoria has 21 active cases including 14 ROTs and including one patient in ICU.  NSW has no active locally acquired cases and 28 ROTs and Qld has 7 active cases all ROTs.  Australia wide there are 41 active cases including 33 ROTs plus 28 ROTs in NSW.

Worldwide, there were 297,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours and 7,000 deaths.  Even taking into account the pattern of underreported numbers early in the week it appears that the downward trend in both new infections and deaths worldwide is continuing.

The downward trend in infections and deaths in both the US and UK is also continuing.  The US reported 82,100 new infections in the 24 hours of 14/02 and 3,300 deaths. The downward trend in deaths isn't as strong as the trend in infections, but at least it is downward.

The downward trend in the UK is stronger in both new infections and deaths.  In the 24 hours of 14/02 the UK reported 13,400 new infections and 620 deaths.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – February 2021 – Covid Normal (as much as possible)

*Please note that the “Aus Active & Aus ROTs columns do not include the NSW ROTs.  (ROTs = Returned Overseas Travellers)

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus ROTs Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Vic ROTS Increase	*Aus Active Infection	*Aus ROTs	Vic Active Infection	Vic ROTs
01/02	28,817	7	7	20,449	1	1	61	44	21	21
02/02	28,820	2	2	20,450	1	1	61	43	22	22
03/02	28,830	6	6	20,450	0	0	57	42	21	21
04/02	28,835	6	5	20,452	3	2	51	39	21	21
05/02	28,839	4	4	20,455	3	3	53	40	24	23
06/02	28,848	6	6	20,456	0	0	52	41	22	23
07/02	20,850	2	2	20,456	0	0	52	41	21	20
08/02	28,856	6	4	20,456	1	0	53	41	20	18
09/02	28,860	2	2	20,456	0	0	46	34	15	13
10/02	28,867	7	5	20,458	2	0	46	31	16	11
11/02	28,878	7	5	20,460	2	0	48	31	17	10
12/02	28,887	7	2	20,465	5	0	45	34	19	12
13/02	28,892	5	4	20,466	1	0	40	32	20	13
14/02	28,898	6	4	20,469	3	1	42	34	21	14
15/02	28,900	2	1	10,471	2	1	44	33	21	14

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
01/02/21	103,514,297	412,018	2,237,252	9,577
02/02/21	103,892,731	378,434	2,246,435	9,183
03/02/21	104,378,657	485,926	2,262,084	15,649
04/02/21	104,861,308	482,651	2,275,840	13,756
05/02/21	105,394,460	533,152	2,292,538	16,698
06/02/21	105,879,863	485,403	2,307,031	14,493
07/02/21	106,329,652	449,789	2,318,949	11,918
08/02/21	106,677,372	347,720	2,326,819	7,870
09/02/21	106,983,743	306,371	2,335,265	8,446
10/02/21	107,377,125	438,382	2,348,700	13,435
11/02/21	107,849,724	472,599	2,364,864	16,164
12/02/21	108,280,120	430,396	2,377,223	12,359
13/02/21	108,726,332	446,212	2,394,005	16,782
14/02/21	109,085,416	359,084	2,403,982	9,917
15/02/21	109,382,123	296,707	2,411,000	7,018

	US & UK Daily New Infections & Death Numbers
Date	US New Infections	US Daily Deaths	UK New Infections	UK Daily Deaths
31/01/21	136,252	2,640	23,400	1,205
01/02/21	110,470	1,789	21,190	590
02/02/21	130,759	1,881	18,668	407
03/02/21	110,679	3,389	16,906	1,451
04/02/21	119,235	3,796	19,215	1,322
05/02/21	119,931	4,941	20,374	915
06/02/21	128,114	3,522	19,204	1,015
07/02/21	102,420	2,618	18,363	828
08/02/21	86,928	1,268	15,904	376
09/02/21	86,646	1,465	14,138	333
10/02/21	92,666	3,031	12,441	1,052
11/02/21	93,166	3,219	13,077	1,002
12/02/21	103,306	3,724	13,543	680
13/02/21	99,511	5,443	15,198	759
14/02/21	82,178	3,313	13,355	621

Covid Normal Reminders;

Remember: to think carefully before mucking around with spreadsheets and tables in Blogger; to keep up your Covid era exercise regime; if you put your mask on when you enter a shop you can take it of again when you leave ( I seem to get home and realise I still have my mask on); to laugh at my jokes; it is a beautiful day out there, get out and enjoy it; keep your corporate governance up to date; bring yourself up to date with the stage 4 lockdown rules; to buy your valentine day flowers before lockdown; those that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.