Blog Day 589 - Tuesday 16 November 2021 - Day 18 of Covid Normal

The Andrews government have back pedalled a little with their new draconian pandemic legislation.  The fine for individuals breaching the new pandemic rules has been reduced from $92,000 to $45,000 for individuals.  That is a relief, far better to be fined $45,000 than $92,000, I wonder if you could enter into a payment plan?  

There is still a lot of opposition to the legislation from the most unlikely of bedfellows, including the Human Rights Commission, the Melbourne legal profession, the usual suspects of various flag waving ratbag groups and anti vaxxers as well as regular members of the public.

A great day for Australia's giant leap into the space age.  Sometime over the weekend the first solid fuel, Australian designed rocket to be launched in the country since 1971 was launched somewhere in outback NSW.  This rocket in its mighty thrust into the outer reaches of the known universe reached the height of 30,000 feet, they reckon they might try and go higher next time.

I recall writing about this planned expedition into a galaxy far, far away sometime ago but that launch was postponed because it was raining.

For the sake of comparison pretty much all commercial passenger aircraft fly higher than our almighty thrust into the great unknown.  

But, I suppose we have to start somewhere.

Coming back down to earth after our exciting entry into the space race lets have a look at the current covid figures.

Although the national and Victorian vaccination percentages appear to have dropped that is not the case, what has happened is that the numbers are now including 12 year olds plus thus increasing the size of the pool of people to be vaccinated.

Using the 12+ as the eligible population nationally 89.5% of the population have received their 1st vaccine shot and 81.7% are double dosed.  In Victoria 92.2% of the eligible population 12+ have received their 1st vaccine and 86.6% are double dosed.

Our target for further easing of the restrictions in Victoria is 90% of the population 16+ being vaccinated and we would appear to be on target to reach that by the end of this week.

Meanwhile in Victoria the number of new daily cases continue to decline from 905 new cases two days ago to 838 a day ago and 797 in the last 24 hours.  The number of deaths isn't declining as fast as what may have been expected with 8 deaths reported in Victoria in the last 24 hours and 5 the day before that.  These death figures could still be as a result of the higher infection rates some one or two weeks ago.

The Victorian hospitalisation numbers continue on a general pattern of declining numbers although up slightly in the last 24 hours at 394.  Up from 378 the day before.  However if we go back a week to 09/11 we had 549 patients in hospital with covid.  Currently there are 72 covid patients in ICU and 44 on ventilators, both numbers continuing to decline.

        Corona Virus Daily Stats – 16 November 2021 – Day 18 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
30/10	169,379	1,601	87.9%	87,918	1,355	237	25,314	3,972	21,095	76.2%
31/10					930	166
01/11					1,437	129
02/11					956	171
03/11					909	187
04/11	175,830	1,556	88.7%	93,373	1,247	309	20,971	3,144	17,674	78.5%
05/11					1,343
06/11	178,927	1,559	89%	95,917	1,268	271	19,984	3,168	16,662	79.6%
07/11		1,433			1,126
08/11		1,326			1,087
09/11	182,870	1,313	89.4%	99,183	1,069	224	18,607	2,831	15,607	80.6%
10/11					1,003
11/11	185,627	1,589	89.7%	101,451	1,313	264	18,498	2,799	15,675	81.5%
12/11					1,115
13/11					1,221
14/11	189,407	1,116	90.3%	104,665	905	196	20,423	2,928	17,302	82.8%
15/11					838
16/11	191,623	1,021	90.5%	106,281	797	212	17,204	2,864	14,131	83.2%
17/11

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 16 November 2021 – Day 18 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
30/10	1,601	1,113	222	121	1,355	747	135	83	14	11
31/10										11
01/11										3
02/11										9
03/11					909					8
04/11	1,556	979	180	110	1,247	660	114	78	13	9
05/11					1,343				14	10
06/11	1,559	932	162	98	1,268	651	106	70	10	7
07/11									10	9
08/11									12	5
09/11	1,313	849	133	76	1,069	579	90	55	14	10
10/11									17	14
11/11	1,589	703	119	64	1,313	457	79	48	4	3
12/11						426	82	50	11	9
13/11						405	77	51	4	4
14/11	1,116	639	107	62	905	394	75	46	5	4
15/11						378	78	48	6	5
16/11	1,021	625	105	61	797	394	72	44	10	8
17/11