Blog Day 457 - Friday 02 July 2021 - Day 8 of Covid Normal (Sort Of)

 My word it's a funny old world.  Just imagine if 2 or 3 weeks ago the Prime Minister had suggested that the number of Returning Overseas Travellers (ROTs) be limited or reduced, the bleeding hearts of the left would have been up in arms screaming racism, ageism, religiousism, probably facism (but not communism) and any other ism that you could think of.  The opinion columns of the Age and the Guardian plus all ABC outlets would be full of lefties condemning the government over the decision.

But what happens when this is suggested, nay demanded, by the socialist left premiers of three states - ahem - the silence is deafening!

We are still being told that there are 34,000 "Australians" waiting to be repatriated back to Australia.  I think at the height of the Indian pandemic we were told there were 40,000 "Australians" on the waiting list.  We have been bringing in about 6,000 ROTs a week, once again the sums don't add up.  That 40,000 should have been cleared in 6 or 7 weeks.  This reminds me of one of those clown cars where the clowns jump out of one door, run around the back of the car and jump back into the car only to jump out again.

Picture of Clown Car

We have now been advised that from 14 July ROTs will be reduced by 50%.  There is a whole lot of information around this which I will summarise once it is all a bit clearer.  Looks like there won't be as many Irish/Australians returning here as was previously planned.

So what is happening across wild brown land of ours, this land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains.  Lets start with the good news; Victoria hasn't recorded any new local infections in the last 24 hours.  Now for the not so good news, NSW continues to record new local infections with 31 in the last 24 hours and of these 12 were not already in isolation and 4 are under investigation.  Looks like a continuation of lockdown for at least parts of NSW.

Queensland has recorded 3 more local infections in the last 24 hours and has lifted the lockdown in some areas, but extended it for another 24 hours in other parts of the state.

SA has reported one more local infection who is a family member of the miner from NT.  This means all five members of this family, including children and a baby have tested positive.

Australia wide there were 40 new cases reported in the last 24 hours of which 6 were ROTs and 34 were community infections of some sort or another.  Currently Australia wide there are 374 active virus cases of which 102 are ROTs, meaning 272 are local community infections.  

Now get this, in the last 24 hours Victoria received the results of 24,700 tests, Qld 27,000 and NSW a whopping 73,600 tests.  This has to be a one day record for Australia, well done those NSWelshmen, women and children.

Worldwide there are some good figures being reported with both India and USA reporting continuing declines in daily infections.  Brazil is also reporting what could be the start of a pattern of declining daily new infections, lets hope it is a genuine trend and not just an aberration.

Worryingly the UK daily infection figures continue to rise with 25,600 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.  The UK aims to lift all covid restriction on 19/7.  As I understand it they believe that by then enough of the population will be vaccinated to eliminate the need for controls on movement, masks etc.  At the moment 48% of the UK population is fully vaccinated, compared to Australia's 8%.

It will be interesting to see how this works out for them.  At the moment the UK death figures are reasonably low with 14 in the last 24 hours, will the death figures increase in line with the increase in daily infection figures?

The other worry at the moment is Japan, with an increasing infection rate a few weeks out from the Olympics.  In the last 24 hours Japan recorded 1,800 new infections and 41 deaths.  Anybody going to the Olympics???

Corona Virus Daily Stats – 02 July 2021 – Day 08 of Covid Normal (Sort Of)

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
01/07
02/07	30,684	40	6	20,715	3	3	378	102	32	23
03/07
04/07