Blog Day 504 - Wednesday 18 August 2021 - Day 13 of Covid Lockdown V6.0

 Just a reminder that today is National Vietnam Veterans Day it also the anniversary of the battle of Long Tan that took place in South Vietnam on 18 August 1966.

From the arrival of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATV) in 1962 to the withdrawal of the Australian forces towards the end of 1972 nearly 60,000 Australian service personnel served in South Vietnam of whom 521 died in service and over 3,000 were wounded.

Of course this period of the war coincided with the last round of National Service experienced in this country.  From 1965 to 1972 20 year old males were required to register for National Service for a period of two years in the Australian army.  Not all of those registered were required for service so selection of the individuals was based on birthdates with the dates drawn from a barrel like a giant lottery.

By way of explanation, I turned 20 in the 2nd half of 1972 so I had to register for national service in the period July to December 1972.  The lottery took place around the middle of the 6 month period and my birthdate wasn't selected so I was declared exempt from National Service.  If my birthdate had of been drawn I would have entered the army fairly shortly after that.

That is what would have happened in normal circumstances, but as it turned out my potential intake didn't make it into uniform.  Those of you with long memories will recall that at the end of 1972 comrade Gough Whitlam got elected and put an end to conscription immediately.  

The true believers and comrade Gough's fellow travellers will have you believe that Gough was responsible for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam.  Just to set the record straight, by the time Gough got elected there were about 100 Australian troops in South Vietnam out of the 60,000 or so that served there through the war.  But to his credit Gough did withdraw most of those 100.

Although I wasn't called up for National Service I did join the CMF (Citizens Military Forces or Army Reserve) in 1973 and served in 6th Field Ambulance and 5 RVR (Royal Victoria Regiment) in which I reached the lofty heights of Corporal.

If you get the chance today thank a Vietnam veteran for his or her service.

Although not military in nature this country is still dealing with another crisis of national importance, of course I am talking about the covid pandemic.

NSW is still going through the same horrors that Victoria went through in the 2nd half of last year.  In the last 24 hours NSW reported 633 new infections and 3 more deaths.  NSW currently has just over 8,000 active cases with 462 in hospital, 72 in ICU and 25 on ventilators.  Many of the NSW cases are now reported from regional and rural areas.  Some of these areas such as Wilcannia are remote and quite isolated with limited medical facilities, and are also home to large indigenous communities with compromised immune systems.

Not on the same scale but also of concern the ACT has recorded 22 new cases in the last 24 hours.

Victoria reported 24 new cases in the last 24 hours and now has 246 active cases with 12 in hospital and 2 in ICU.  One of the newly acquired cases in Victoria is a sex worker who was plying her trade whilst infectious, I will hazard a guess that there wasn't any social distancing practised in these encounters.  I wonder if she had a QR code?

There has been at least four infections arise out of the recent North Caulfield engagement party and possibly more to come.

To date Australia wide there has been 15.6 million vaccine doses administered, of which 10 million are 1st doses and 5.5 million 2nd doses.  

Trying to draw any conclusions from the worldwide figures is difficult given the wide variance in reporting of day to day figures.  In the last 24 hours there were 567,000 new infections reported worldwide and 14,251 deaths.  By way of some sort of comparison on 7/5 this year there were 870,000 infections reported and 14,000 deaths and and on 9/1 this year 822,000 new infections and 15,000 deaths.  

The worldwide infection rates appear to have declined from highs in March and April to lower figures in late May and June and then rising again in July and August with equivalent movements in death figures.  This analysis is purely observational and as previously stated the range of figures day to day makes any meaningful analysis difficult.

One day when I get a quiet moment I might try and do some averages that might make more sense.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – 18 August 2021 – Day 13 of Covid Lockdown V6.0

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
01/08
02/08	34,612	230	8	20,950	2	0	3,338	100	134	?
03/08
04/08
05/08
06/08	35,698	308	0	20,967	6	0	4,252	129	75	7
07/08
08/08	36,328	290	15	21,010	13	2	4,730	121	100	4
09/08
10/08	37,010	383	4	21,041	20	0	5,335	121	111	3
11/08
12/08	37,754	382	3	21,079	23	0	5,884	105	137	2
13/08
14/08	36,658	497	2	21,119	21	0	6,593	109	163	2
15/08
16/08	39,615	524	4	21,166	22	0	7,452		205
17/08
18/08	40,774	684	5	21,215	24	0	8,455		246
19/08