Blog Day 647 - Sunday 16 January 2021 - Day 78 of Covid Nearly Normal

The Djokovic circus rolls along with a hearing by the full bench of the Federal Court continuing as I type this blog.  It is 1.47pm in the afternoon and we don't have a result as yet - does Djokovic stay or does he go?   The interesting thing about this, apart from the decision itself when it comes, is how does one get the full bench of the Federal court to sit on a Sunday on 24 hours notice.

All around Australia people are sitting in gaol, on remand, for months, if not years waiting to get a court date to hear their cases and yet a dodgy Serbian tennis player can get the court to sit and hear his case within hours.  

Due to a volcanic eruption  in Tonga we have a tsunami alert for the east coast of Australia and warnings have gone out for people to stay away from beaches.  A tsunami surge has caused some minor damage in coastal areas of the west coast of USA and in some small boat moorings in NZ.  Nothing to report here as yet.

I can remember when tsunamis used to be called tidal waves.  Back sometime in the early 1960's there was a tidal wave alert on the north west coast of Tasmania as a result of an earthquake in Alaska, I think.  I was at primary school at the time and our school was slightly elevated so wasn't evacuated but the two high schools in Burnie that were right on the coast were evacuated.

As it turns out the tidal wave did not eventuate.  Pity, it might have made some improvements.

Talking about tidal waves, we are still experiencing a tidal wave of virus infections although the numbers appear to be declining.

The vaccination percentages continue to rise, albeit slowly.  Current percentages by state for eligible folk over 16 is copied below;

Vaccinations

Doses by Age Band First / Second

STATE	0+	0+	12+	12+
NSW	81.6%	79.1%	95.8%	92.9%
Victoria	81.2%	78.7%	95.1%	92.2%
Queensland	77.8%	73.9%	91.9%	87.3%
SA	80.4%	76.2%	93.4%	88.6%
ACT	87.4%	84.0%	>99%	>99%
Tasmania	85.5%	81.1%	>99%	94.0%
NT	75.2%	70.3%	90.9%	85.0%
WA	79.2%	72.5%	93.8%	85.9%
Australia	81.4%	77.9%	95.6%	91.5%

To date nearly 5 million citizens of this wide brown land have received their third (booster) vaccination shot.  

In the last 24 hours Victoria reported 28,000 new infections, I have some doubts about these figures, for some reason they are always lower over the weekend, tens of thousands of tests have have not been processed as they were past their "use by date", how many infections would have been in these tests and are all positive RATs being reported to the authorities?

I know that at some time the modelling tells us that new infections have to reach a peak and then start to decline although I get the impression that we are bit early in the process for this to be occurring now.

The hospital system is coming under pressure here with 1,114 patients in hospital due to the virus, of these 122 are in ICU and 35 on ventilators.  

In the last 24 hours 13 people died of covid and 24 the day before.

Gotta go and watch the cricket now, updated tables as below.  One of the cricket commentators just referred to a "chink" in a batsman's armour.  Is that term suitable in today's PC woke world!?

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 16 January 2021 – Day 78 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					51,356	45,098
09/01	972,455	94,662	93.9%	369,362	44,155	30,062	560,023	292,237	146,863	91.0%
10/01					35,843	20,293
11/01	1,115,610	65,243	93.9%	443,787	37,994	25,870	613,502	315,785	171,369	91.0%
12/01					40,127	34,759
13/01					37,169	92,264
14/01	1,524,727	122,685	94.7%	561,872	34,836	63,018	754,967	336,765	239,396	91.3%
15/01					26,817	48,768
16/01	1,726,116	85,824	95.6%	618,965	28,128	34,660	832,708	342,838	237,559	91.5%

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 16 January 2022 – Day 78 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									26	9
09/01	94,662	3,304	298	73	44,155	752	104	23	21	4
10/01									22	2
11/01	65,243	3,721	334	86	37,994	861	117	27	24	13
12/01
13/01
14/01	122,685	4,396	367	114	34,836	976	112	30	50	18
15/01									55	24
16/01	85,824	4,753	392	120	28,128	1,114	122	35	40	13