Blog Day 556 - Saturday 09 October 2010 - Day 65 Lockdown V6.0 Extended

It is a funny old world, most Victorians and the enthusiastic readers of my blog would be aware that the state premier has a bit of a habit of blaming others when things go wrong, not just with the pandemic but with life in general, nothing is ever his fault or his government's fault.

Case in point, the current blow out in virus infections, according to the premier, is as a result of us Victorians and in particular us Melbournites breaking the quarantine/lockdown rules, nothing to do with the failure of the contact tracing, the breakdown in the health system or the catastrophe that is the current ambulance system.  No, it is all the fault of us naughty citizens.

Talking of naughty citizens who was caught recently not wearing his mask whilst outdoors, none other than our premier, caught not once but twice, who's a naughty boy now?  

So currently the premier is involved in the following;

• Two breaches of covid regulation - not wearing a mask outdoors
• Being investigate by IBAC over his and his government's involvement in the UFU, MFB, CFA fiasco.
• Possibly, allegedly, being investigated personally over ALP branch stacking and the use of government employees in party political business, also before IBAC.
• A government department DHHS is being taken to court by Worksafe Vic (another government department) over breaches of worksafe legislation involving the hotel quarantine scandal last year.  If found guilty of all charges DHHS could have fines of $95,000,000 imposed by the court. It would seem reasonable to assume that the premier will be called upon to give evidence in these proceedings and that  he and his government maybe found to have allegedly contributed to the hotel quarantine shambles.

Of course while all this is going on the premier will not answer any questions in respect to the above  matters, as they are conveniently "before the courts".  
 

If these matters can be dragged out "before the courts" for another year or so that will get the premier through an election year without being challenged about these matters.  

I have found another class of person to add to my "people who irritate me" (PWIM) list.  You that know me understand that I am a patient and tolerant person but not withstanding that the PWIM list is reasonably long and getting longer.

Today's entry to the PWIM list is the people who don't check into a shop with the QR code.  For example, my local bakery has a limit of three people in the shop at one time.  This morning I turn up at the bakery, there are already two customers inside, so I go through the QR code check in and whilst I am doing that a lady walks into the shop, not QR coding and therefore jumps the queue.  Therefore I am penalised for doing the right thing, which gives me a warm glow but doesn't get me my bread rolls any quicker.

This is like Cassius Clay's left leg "neither right nor fair".  

From the current daily figures the suppression model doesn't seem to be working in Victoria, I wonder what plan "B" is or is there even a plan "B".

So far the two weapons in our arsenal to fight the covid virus appear to be ineffective, these two weapons are lockdown and vaccination.  

Just by observation the lockdown doesn't seem to be being taken as seriously by the general populace as in previous lockdowns.  You may recall in the lockdowns last year I posted some photos of deserted shopping strips and streets with no traffic.  It would be difficult get those photos currently.

The other weapon are the vaccinations and I daresay that we haven't yet reached a critical mass of vaccinations to make a noticeable difference.

Currently nationally 81.9% of the eligible population has received one inoculation and 61.2% has received two, in Victoria the figures are 85.2% and 57.7% respectively.  Meanwhile in NSW 90.14% have received one injection and 72.5% have receive two injections.  The NSW vaccination rate is one of the highest in the world.  

Some of my less well informed readers might claim that this is because NSW received preferential treatment from the Prime Minister for Sydney.  But those of us with less prejudiced views know that this isn't the case.

Onto today's figures, in the last 24 hours Victoria reported 1,965 new infections from the results of 73,000 tests.  This figure is a new record for Victoria and doesn't look like it is going to come down for a little while yet, we are being warned to expect up to 3,000 cases per day.  If this results in a proportional increase in hospital admissions and ICU and ventilation numbers this is going to put the health system under a huge amount of pressure.

Currently in Victoria we have 578 patients in hospital due to the virus and 117 of those are in ICU and 83 are on ventilators.  Apparently being put on a ventilator is so difficult and uncomfortable the patient has to be placed in a coma whilst they are on it.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – 09 October 2021 – Day 65 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Extended

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	NSW Increase	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
01/10	107,181	2,064	77.8%	38,476	1,143	866	21,114	9,862	10,944	54.2%
02/10		2,360		39,749	1,488
03/10	111,388	1,928	79%	41,128	1,220	668	21,378	9,215	11,785	56%
04/10					1,377	623
05/10	115,800	2,406	79.9%	44,251	1,763	608	23,376	8,571	14,368	57.4%
06/10					1,413	594
07/10	120,079	2,272	80.5%	47,302	1,638	587	23,435	7,868	15,074	58.4%
08/10					1,823	648
09/10	125,080	2,574	81.9%	51,012	1,965	581	24,984	7,296	17,199	61.2%
10/10

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 09 Oct 2021 – Day 65 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Extended
Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
2,066	1,483	300	166	1,143	395	87	59	20	3
2,360	1,468	302	156	1,488	429	97	54	12	2
1,928	1,494	298	153	1,220	476	98	57	13	3
2,406	1,535	298	161	1,763	517	101	66	11	4
2,272	1,517	305	165	1,638	564	115	74	10	2
				1,823	620	114	76	16	5
2,574	1,437	288	163	1,965	578	117	83	16	5