Blog Day 473 - Sunday 18 July 2021 - Day of Covid Lockdown V5.1

 Had my second AZ vaccination shot yesterday and so far no ill effects, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sorry must of dozed off there for a moment.

My designated 12 weeks wasn't up until 3/8 but I had the opportunity to get my jab yesterday at the local doctor's and they had no issue with me getting done a couple of weeks early.  They had five or six rooms set up and they were churning through the lined up customers.  My booking was for 2.20pm in the afternoon and even though they were running a bit behind I was out of there by 2.50, even with my mandatory 15 minute wait.

The young lady that was checking the bookings told me that they were a bit behind and I said "I hope that isn't where they are giving the injections", and I could tell even under her mask that she thought that was hilariously funny, or maybe not.

Of course the big subject of discussion in this town is whether Lockdown V5.1 ceases entirely on Tuesday night or does it continue as Lockdown V5.2 or V5.2 lite.  Of course I don't care anymore as I have been double jabbed, cough on me all you like, no more wiping down of shopping trollies for me, if somebody sits next to you at the pictures with no mask on and asks for a lick of your ice cream that will be me, I have thrown out all of my hand sanitiser and haven't even washed my hands in the last 24 hours.

Naturally I will maintain my vigorous exercise regime with a view to minimising the chance of developing a thrombosis and plus I've got to go out and get bread rolls for my lunch and tonic for my V&T later in the day.  I cooked beautiful piece of corned silverside for my dinner last night and so I have delicious cold silverside for my lunch today and for the next 4 or 5 days.

Seriously though gentle reader there are still big problems in the Emerald City (aka Sydney) with NSW recording 105 new local infections in the last 24 hours from the results of nearly 67,000 tests in the same period.  Unfortunately NSW has also reported a fourth death from this current outbreak.  This brings to 58 the total number of deaths in NSW due to the virus and 914 Australia wide.

Victoria is in a bit of an in-between type situation with 16 new local infections reported in the last 24 hours from 53,000 tests.  Probably not low enough to come fully out of lockdown but probably low enough to consider some sort of relaxation of the rules.  I reckon whatever happens we will be wearing masks for some time to come.

With the Olympics one week away the daily infection rate in Japan is continuing to increase with Tokyo bearing the brunt of it.  In the last 24 hours Japan recorded 3,400 new daily infections and for the sake of comparison their daily rate was 1,800 per day a fortnight ago.  Further to that three Olympic competitors have tested positive to the virus in the last 24 hours, two in the Olympic village and one at the airport.

The UK is still sticking to its guns of complete lifting of all virus restrictions on 19/7.  In the last 24 hours they reported 52,000 new infections.  The last time the UK recorded these sorts of numbers was in January of this year.  At the same time they were reporting deaths in the range of 1,500 per twenty four hour period.  Currently they are reporting deaths around 50 per day.

It will be interesting to see how this model works. It looks like about 53% of the population of the UK has been vaccinated, is this enough to allow the virus to run through the community and will this level of vaccination keep the death rate down sufficiently to be considered a success.  I daresay time will tell.

I have copied a table below which gives the vaccination rates for a few countries including our good selves.

Location	Doses given	Fully vaccinated	% of population fully vaccinated
Australia	9.81M 9,810,000	2.67M 2,670,000	10.5% 10.5%
China (Mainland)	1.44B 1,440,000,000	223M 223,000,000	-
India	400M 400,000,000	81M 81,000,000	5.9% 5.9%
United States	337M 337,000,000	161M 161,000,000	49.0% 49.0%
Brazil	122M 122,000,000	33.5M 33,500,000	15.9% 15.9%
Germany	85.6M 85,600,000	38.2M 38,200,000	46.0% 46.0%
United Kingdom	81.7M 81,700,000	35.5M 35,500,000	53.3% 53.3%
Japan	66.7M 66,700,000	25.8M 25,800,000	20.4% 20.4%
France	63.2M 63,200,000	27.1M 27,100,000	40.4% 40.4%
Turkey	62.5M 62,500,000	20.1M 20,100,000	24.6% 24.6%
Italy	60.6M 60,600,000	25.5M 25,500,000	42.3% 42.3%
Indonesia	57M 57,000,000	16.1M 16,100,000	5.9% 5.9%
Mexico	53.3M 53,300,000	21.4M 21,400,000	16.8% 16.8%
Russia	52.3M 52,300,000	20.6M 20,600,000	14.2% 14.2%
Spain	50.2M 50,200,000	23.4M 23,400,000	49.8% 49.8%
Canada	44.7M 44,700,000	18.3M 18,300,000	48.6% 48.6%
Poland	32.4M 32,400,000	15.9M 15,900,000	41.9% 41.9%
Argentina	26.5M 26,500,000	5.19M 5,190,000	11.6% 11.6%
Chile	24.2M 24,200,000	11.4M 11,400,000	60.4% 60.4%
Colombia	22.9M 22,900,000	9.88M 9,880,000	19.6% 19.6%
Pakistan	22.2M 22,200,000	4.45M 4,450,000	2.1%