Blog Day 572 - Saturday 30 October 2021 - Day 01 of Covid Normal

Here we go again, day one of which I am calling Covid Normal.  Apart from a few changes when we get to 80% of the eligible population, including children 12 years of age plus, being fully vaccinated this is life as it will be for the foreseeable future.

At least today I was able to walk around without a mask on but I noticed many people were still wearing masks.

The draconian "Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 (Vic) bill was passed by the lower house of the Victorian parliament on Thursday night.  This bill puts immense power in the hands of the government of the day and some non elected officials and has been subject to much criticism in the community. The passing of the bill in the lower house came as no surprise because the government has the majority in the lower house.

The real battle begins when the bill is put before the upper house.  The government needs the support of three of the independents to get this piece of legislation passed into law.  Generally the government only needs to offer the independents some sort of token reward to get their vote.  (Remember the independents are generally one issue members and are so surprised at being elected they will do anything to retain their seat and a grip on the public payroll generally earning far more than they have ever earnt before).

Surprisingly, two groups who generally uncritically support the socialist left premier and government are not on this occasion providing unbridled support.  I talk of course of  lawyers and The Age newspaper.

I have extracted the following from the open letter published by twenty six members of the Victorian bar, including many QCs.  I have not in any way been selective in the pieces I have quoted from the letter, they reflect accurately the broad thrust of the criticism of the proposed legislation.

"The overriding concern is that the Bill, if passed, may allow the Victorian government effectively to rule the State of Victoria by decree for the foreseeable future, without proper Parliamentary oversight or the usual checks and balances on executive power. 

 A key feature of the Bill is that the Minister of Health will have the power to make “pandemic orders” (s 165AI). This effectively confers an unlimited and practically unreviewable power on the Minister to rule Victoria by decree on a long-term basis".

"The Bill also confers extremely broad and unchecked powers on authorised officers: • Without seeking to in any way denigrate their important work, it is to be remembered that authorised officers are numerous and unelected, and include relatively low-level officials, including officers appointed by local councils and other public servants (Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 s 31). As at late 2020, there were as many as 382 authorised officers in Victoria: Loielo v Giles [2020] VSC 722; (2020) 63 VR 1 at [52]-[53]."

Without boring you with too much detail the The Age editorial criticism is along similar lines and an opinion piece in the Australian today details similar criticism.  I cannot recall the last time both The Age and The Australian were critical of Victoria's socialist left government and premier, most unusual for the Age I must say.

And now onto some figures, obviously as the vaccination rates continue to climb the daily infection rates will become less critical if only because those getting crook with the virus will be the ignorant and selfish rump of the community who refuse to get vaccinated.

At 1,355 new infections in the last 24 hours the daily infection rate in Victoria continues to decline, which is good news for all.  Unfortunately the death figures are remaining relatively high at 11 in the last 24 hours.  Hospitalisation, ICU and ventilator figures are currently remaining fairly constant.  With the declining infection figures we should be able to expect the hospitalisation and death figures to start to decline in due course.

I forgot that today is Saturday therefore the public servants who update the vaccination % figures have got the day off, or even more likely the unofficial long weekend off.  So the published vaccination figures nationally and for the state are the same as yesterday's.  

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 30 October 2021 – Day 01 of Covid Normal

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					1,890	479
11/10	129,567	2,144	82.2%	54,470	1,612	498	26,276	6,747	19,012	61.9%
12/10					1,466	360
13/10	133,444	2,069	82.8%	57,470	1,572	446	26,479	6,055	19,861	63.4%
14/10					2,297	407
15/10	138,720	2,615	83.6%	61,869	2,179	400	27,123	5,253	21,324	65.4%
16/10					1,993
17/10	143,135	2,172	84.4%	65,605	1,838	301	29,087	5,131	23,376	67.2%
18/10					1,903
19/10	147,301	2,046	84.8%	69,206	1,749	273	27,121	4,168	22,476	69.3&
20/10					1,842	283
21/10	152,024	2,642	85.8%	73,233	2,235	374	28,577	5,220	22,889	70.8%
22/10	154,489	2,552	86.1%	75,340	2,189	345	28,714	5,050	23,230	71.7%
23/10
24/10	158,604	2,240	86.5%	78,821	1,935	296	30,074	4,626	24,993	72.5%
25/10					1,461
26/10	162,026	1,808	86.8%	81,662	1,510	284	29,446	4,399	24,715	73.4%
27/10					1,534
28/10					1,923
29/10	167,790	1,935	87.9%	86,563	1,656	269	27,944	3,960	23,730	76.2%
30/10	169,379	1,601	87.9%	87,918	1,355	237	25,314	3,972	21,095	76.2%
31/10

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 30 Oct 2021 – Day 01 of Covid Normal
Date	Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
01/10	2,066	1,483	300	166	1,143	395	87	59	20	3
02/10	2,360	1,468	302	156	1,488	429	97	54	12	2
03/10	1,928	1,494	298	153	1,220	476	98	57	13	3
04/10
05/10	2,406	1,535	298	161	1,763	517	101	66	11	4
06/10
07/10	2,272	1,517	305	165	1,638	564	115	74	10	2
08/10					1,823	620	114	76	16	5
09/10	2,574	1,437	288	163	1,965	578	117	83	16	5
10/10									11	5
11/10	2,144	1,490	295	170	1,612	677	133	94	16	8
12/10										8
13/10	2,069	1,463	306	173	1,572	705	146	92	17	13
14/10					2,297	706	147	100
15/10	2,615	1,413	311	183	2,179	695	157	101	11	6
16/10
17/10	2,172	1,440	299	170	1,838	777	151	94	16	6
18/10						851	155	103	12	7
19/10	2,046	1,420	288	174	1,749	784	149	100	15	11
20/10
21/10	2,642	1,343	276	165	2,335	779	141	96	13	12
22/10	2,552	1,307	281	166	2,189	784	145	94	21	16
23/10
24/10	2,240	1,312	277	165	1,935	787	146	93	15	11
25/10					1,461				44	7
26/10	1,808	1,315	266	150	1,510	817	147	88	5	4
27/10									16	13
28/10									27	25
29/10	1,935	1,126	216	122	1,656	738	130	85	12	10
30/10	1,601	1,113	222	121	1,355	747	135	83	14	11