Blog Day 638 - Friday 7 January 2022 - Day 69 of Covid Nearly Normal

The third day of the fourth test between Australia and England is being played in Sydney today.  Play has been interrupted by rain each day of the test and the start of play was delayed this morning.  Australia won the toss and elected to bat and declared late yesterday afternoon at 8 for 416.  The poms after after lunch are currently 4 wickets for 37 runs, not a great start to their innings.

Interesting day yesterday, I attended a funeral at a catholic church in Templestowe.  The service was the full requiem mass but as far as funerals went it was a nice service.  Now, here is a question, doesn't anybody wear a jacket and tie to a funeral anymore?  I reckon apart from the members of the family I was the only one in a large congregation that had a jacket and tie on.  

On the way to Templestowe and return I passed three covid virus testing stations and all three were closed.  This is including the big testing station near Holmesglen TAFE.  It is amazing that any testing is getting done given the number of sites closed or on short hours.

Of course the big news in this town is Novak Djokovic.  When Djokovic arrived in Australia his visa was cancelled by Border Force as it is alleged that he wasn't able to support the covid virus exemption that the visa was granted under.  The story surrounding the cancellation of his visa is still somewhat hazy but whatever, he is currently locked up in immigration detention in a hotel in Melbourne, and not happy about it.

You may recall that Djokovic has refused to disclose his vaccination status and was allegdly claiming that his covid infection some time ago was sufficient for him to be classified as vaccinated, hmmmm, not the case apparently.

Djokovic arrived to play tennis in the Australian Open (AO).  Tennis Australia (TA) and possibly the Victorian government had provided Djokovic with a medical exemption to attend and play in the AO.  Of course this exemption only got Djokovic into the state and into the tennis.  All of a sudden TA and it's cosy arrangement with the Victorian government has come to nought.  The Australian government and Border Force is playing hardball with this and standing their ground, if Djokovic doesn't have the right visa or a faulty visa he doesn't get into the country.

This lack of toadyism must come as a surprise to TA given the stand by the Federal government when in the past the Victorian government has given them everything that they wanted.

Of course the Serbian government and the Serbian community in Australia are up in arms about this and are taking it as a national and personal insult to their proud country and we all know how the Serbians react to real or imagined insults.

The matter is before the courts so I had better not say anything else in case I am held in contempt.

Current vaccination figures below:

Doses by Age Band First / Second

STATE	0+	0+	12+	12+
NSW	80.3%	79.0%	94.3%	92.8%
Victoria	79.9%	78.6%	93.6%	92.1%
Queensland	76.0%	72.8%	89.8%	86.0%
SA	78.9%	75.4%	91.7%	87.7%
ACT	85.1%	83.9%	>99%	>99%
Tasmania	83.7%	79.9%	97.0%	92.6%
NT	73.3%	69.3%	88.6%	83.8%
WA	76.9%	70.6%	91.1%	83.7%
Australia	79.8%	77.3%	93.8%	90.8%

The daily infection rates are continuing to increase with 21,728 new infections reported in the last 24 hours.  This must be a fraction of the real number of infections in the community given most of the testing sites are closed or operating under limited hours.  In the last 24 hours Victoria received the results of 68,000 tests.  The testing stations and pathology clinics providing the results are under so much pressure that the rules have been changed to reduce the dependence on the testing sites and increase the usage of the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) when they become available.

When I understand the new rules I will try and explain them here.

The Victorian hospital, ICU and ventilator numbers are increasing with 644, 106 and 24 respectively.  The death figures are also increasing although only slightly with 6 deaths reported in Victoria in each of the last 2 days.

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 07 January 2021 – Day 69 of Covid Nearly 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
01/01					7,442		158,782		24,161
02/01	460,657	29,947	93.5%	191,148	7,172	18,278	187,258	124,624	31,461	90.4%
03/01					8,577	20,794
04/01					14,020	23,131
05/01	601,169	53,557	93.6%	231,126	17,636	35,054	283,792	184,413	51,317	90.5%
06/01					21,743	34,960
07/01	762,458	78,160	93.8%	274,390	21,728	38,625	392,109	234,066	69,680	90.8%
08/01

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 07 January 2022 – Day 69 of Covid Nearly 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
01/01									14	9
02/01	29,947	1,950	145	48	7,172	472	52	22	4	3
03/01									7	3
04/01									5	2
05/01	53,557	2,904	196	56	17,636	591	53	20	19	11
06/01									12	6
07/01	78,160	2,900	274	65	21,728	644	106	24	20	6
08/01