Blog Day 389 - Wednesday 2021

Currently getting ready to drive to the Hunter Valley in a couple of days time so the blog may be a bit irregular whilst I am away.  I am meeting up with Flashy and Lady P and some of their friends from Cairns for a few days of eating and drinking.  A mini bus and driver has been organised so no driving once we are all there.  We are staying in a large house on a vineyard near Broke and there are many many wineries and restaurants in the immediate area.

I am driving up there via Hay and Dubbo and staying a night in each place on the way, the return journey will be down the coast with overnight stops in Ulludulla, Mallacoota and Lakes Entrance.  I will miss Anzac day in Melbourne however I might attend the dawn service in Hay.

Some of you may recall that a few years ago I had trouble with the two naughty little dogs next door coming through holes in the fence into my back yard.  That problem was solved some years ago with a new fence.  However, what did I see when driving back from the supermarket today, two naughty little dogs running down the road about a block from home.

I thought, I can't leave them running around the streets, so I parked my car in my driveway and walked out onto the street.  You won't believe how excited they were to see me, running towards me with little tails wagging and running in circles around me.  I walked up their driveway, with the dogs following, and found a tiny gap in the picket fence where they had squeezed through to get out.  The larger dog jumped up and squeezed through the hole into the backyard on his own volition but the little one was going to need some encouragement, but first a game.

The little dog wasn't going to get through the hole on its own and wasn't going to make it easy for me catch him.  First of all he jumped up onto the porch and stood there (tail wagging and tongue lolling) just out of my reach.  When I got up onto the porch he jumped down onto the ground and left me standing on the porch.  After doing this about half a dozen times which the little dog enjoyed a lot more than me I managed to corner him, picked him up, (getting slightly bitten in the process) and poked him back through the hole in the fence.

I have blocked the hole in the fence with a wheelie bin and big pot plant which I hope holds until their owner gets home this evening.

Now back to virus stuff.  The three mass vaccination centres have opened today and apparently haven't been rushed off their feet.  They are still only vaccination folk in categories 1A and 1B so I haven't made the cut as yet, so to speak.

New Zealand have reported that an airport employee, who been fully vaccinated, has tested positive to the virus.  He was employed as an aircraft cleaner and had been cleaning international aircraft that had flown in from 'red' zones.  He also cleaned aircraft that were due to fly to Australia.  We have been told that as well as being fully vaccinated he also wore full PPE at all times when working.  Nobody seems to be panicking about this but it will be interesting to see how he became infected.

Still lots of virus traces being picked up in sewage all over Melbourne.  Again nobody seems to be panicking but people are advised if they live in or have attended one of these suburbs to get tested if they show any symptoms of the virus.

Locked away in our own little bubble with NZ we are still doing much better than most of the rest of the world.  In the last 24 hours Australia wide we reported 19 new infections, all ROTs and 178 active cases of which 174 are ROTs.

Victoria has now reported 54 days without a local infection.

Australia wide we are still struggling to get the vaccination rate up, hopefully that will increase with the opening of the mass vaccination centres and the build up of the supply of vaccines.

Worldwide the virus is still a disaster with no sign of improvement.  In the last 24 hours there were 693,000 new infections reported and 685,000 in the previous 24 hours.  If history is anything to go by these figures will increase by more 100,000 in the next few days.  The infection figures for 16/04, 17/04 and 18/04 have all been increased by between 100,000 and 200,000 since I last reported them a couple of days ago.

In the last 24 hours there were 10,481 deaths reported worldwide and 8,603 reported in the 24 hours prior.  Likewise for the death figures these are being adjusted upwards by more than 1,000 per day for the last few days.

The US figures are remaining high but the rate of increase appears to have slowed and maybe even stalled with 67,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours and 473 deaths.

The UK is holding its own with 3,000 new infections in the last 24 hours and only 6 deaths.

If you want to see a disaster unfolding have a look at the Indian figures.  In the last 24 hours India reported 259,000 new infections and 274,000 new infections in the previous 24 hours.  India has reported more than 200,000 new infections per day for the last 6 days and it is still increasing.  The death rate is rapidly climbing with 1,761 deaths reported in the last 24 hours and 1,619 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours.

There has been some incredibly distressing hospital scenes from India shown on the TV news with virus infected patients sharing beds, individuals buying oxygen cylinders for their relatives because the hospitals have run out and the health system basically collapsing.

Things aren't getting any better in Brazil and Turkey but I will leave them for another time.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – April 2021 – Covid Normal (for the time being)

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
01/04	29,323	17	11	20,484	0	0	163		1	1
02/04	29,335	8	7	20,484	0	0	159	147	1	1
03/04	29,341	6	5	20,484	0	0	151	143	1	1
04/04	29,348	7	7	20,484	0	0	143		1	1
05/04	29,357	9	9	20,484	0	0	149		1	1
06/04	29,363	7	7	20,484	0	0	148	129	1	1
07/04	29,377	12	12	20,484	0	0	147	128	1	1
08/04	29,385	6	6	20,484	0	0	140		0	0
09/04	29,388	3	3	20,484	0	0	131	113	0	0
10/04	29,396	6	6	20,485	1	1	132	115	1	1
11/04	29,402	6	6	20,485	0	0	122	106	1	1
12/04	29,419	13	13	20,487	2	2	130	117	3	3
13/04	29,437	18	18	20,487	0	0	142	137	3	3
14/04	29,442	5	5	20,487	0	0	138	133	3	3
15/04	29,469	18	18	20,492	5	5	147		8	8
16/04	29,483	13	14	20,492	0	0	139	137	8	8
17/04	29,505	21	21	20,494	2	2	128	127	10	10
18/04	29,519	14	14	20,494	0	0	154	150	10	10
19/04	29,531	12	12	20,498	4	4	156	152	14	14
20/04	29,559	16	16	20,499	1	1	171		14	14
21/04	29,578	19	19	20,502	3	3	178	174	14	14

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
01/04/21	128,822,013	683,042	2,815,151	12,262
02/04/21	129,524,770	711,626	2,827,020	11,861
03/04/21	130,235,782	628,853	2,837,694	10,189
04/04/21	130,768,885	533,103	2,846,114	8,420
05/04/21	131,217,283	448,398	2,852,494	6,380
06/04/21	131,714,949	394,108	2,860,077	7,105
07/04/21	132,418,417	605,501	2,872,438	11,801
08/04/21	132,975,564	684,346	2,886,571	14,825
09/04/21	133,810,021	707,258	2,901,088	13,825
10/04/21	134,544,377	601,764	2,914,575	12,681
11/04/21	135,201,665	511,007	2,926,952	11,567
12/04/21	135,876,628	521,465	2,935,445	7,653
13/04/21	136,500,047	454,145	2,944,756	8,407
14/04/21	137,442,098	779,567	2,959,069	13,332
15/04/21	138,259,088	816,990	2,972,602	13,533
16/04/21	138,858,046	816,761	2,984,611	12,009
17/04/21	139,695,589	854,855	2,997,352	11,550
18/04/21	140,457,075	788,042	3,009,200	10,498
19/04/21	141,404,276	685,495	3,019,315	8,603
20/04/21	142,097,081	692,805	3,029,796	10,481

	US & UK Daily New Infections & Death Numbers
Date	US New Infections	US Daily Deaths	UK New Infections	UK Daily Deaths
01/04/21	66,173	1,042	4,115	43
02/04/21	78,445	1,048	4,565	51
03/04/21	69,822	967	3,422	52
04/04/21	62,154	676	3,424	10
05/04/21	34,282	222	2,405	10
06/04/21	78,279	596	2,831	28
07/04/21	61,958	835	2,404	20
08/04/21	74,628	2,563	2,797	45
09/04/21	79,254	974	3,124	53
10/04/21	81,801	942	(4,787)	60
11/04/21	65,914	708	2,713	40
12/04/21	46,016	283	1,730	7
13/04/21	69,486	455	3,686	15
14/04/21	77,878	823	2,505	23
15/04/21	75,340	956	2,529	38
16/04/21	73,804	881	2,766	31
17/04/21	79,533	926	2,807	34
18/04/21	52,061	669	2,273	36
19/04/21	42,018	313	1,884	10
20/04/21	67,316	473	3,054	6