Blog Day 522 - Sunday 05 Sept 2021 - Day 31 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Extended 

There was an interesting piece in The Australian newspaper yesterday with the headline "Catholic Health Plea to Protect Jab Objectors".  In part the article said, and I quote "Indeed Catholic teaching holds that no one should be forced to have a vaccine or be discriminated for exercising a conscientious objection".

I would be interested which part of the bible discusses covid vaccinations or indeed vaccinations generally.

I also like the story of the Sydney family who snuck into Victoria to visit family or friends and then snuck back into NSW using the backroads, naturally without any of the required permits or exemptions.  Everything was going hunky dory until the children of the family started boasting about their trip out of town to their mates at school.  SPRUNG! I gather by the name of the school that the family may have been of Irish extraction.

In a rather rapid turnaround Victoria seems to have gone from a covid zero plan to a living with covid plan until the vaccination numbers reach a sufficient percentage of the population to start to make a difference.

In the space of a couple of days the premier has gone from Churchillian  "we will fight them on the beaches" to wimpy Chamberlainish appeasement.  I guarantee the premier has his minions in his media department scurrying around rewriting his speeches and press releases to remove any mention of covid zero, a la "1984".  It could be said that the premier has gone from Churchillian to Orwellian overnight.

In Victoria in the last 24 hours we recorded 183 new cases, down from 189 the day before. More than 90% of the new cases are people under the age of 50.  Victoria has 113 people in hospital due to the virus and of these one has been fully vaccinated, there are 24 Victorians in ICU and 13 on ventilators.  Victoria received the results of 48,000 test in the last 24 hours.

The Victorian cases still seem to be centred around clusters located around Melbourne's northern, north western and western suburbs with schools and child care centres being significant hubs in these areas.  

And still the covid juggernaut rolls on in NSW with 1,487 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, down slightly from 1,516 in the previous 24 hours.  NSW reported 3 more deaths in the 24 hour period.  In NSW they currently have 1,023 people in hospital due to the virus with 172 in ICU and 72 on ventilators.  They received the results of 115,000 tests in the last 24 hours.

To date Australia wide there has been 20.6 million covid vaccinations administered of which 12.7 million are 1st jab and 7.7 million are 2nd jab.  This means that 62% of the eligible population have received their 1st needle and 38% have received both.  For comparison 59.8% of Victorians have received their 1st and 37.2% their second.

At last the vaccination program appears to have some ooomph behind it.

In the last 24 hours the USA reported 301,000 new infections and nearly 4,000 deaths.  In the UK in the same period they reported 42,000 new infections, their highest daily figure since July 2021 and 121 deaths.

This beggars the question as to how many new infections and deaths is a community prepared to accept as part of forgoing a covid zero plan to a living with covid plan.  And what is the health system's capacity to cope?

Corona Virus Daily Stats – 05 September 2021 – Day 31 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Extended

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus ROTs Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	NSW Increase	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Vic ROT
01/09
02/09	56,564	1,482	3	22,361	176	1,288	21,481	20,148	1,029
03/09	58,288	1,660	2	22,570	209	1,433	22,767	21,296	1,180
04/09
05/09	61,619	1,686	2	22,942	183	1,487	25,590	23,903	1,417
06/09
07/09