Blog Day 652 - Friday 21 January 2022 - Day 83 of Covid Nearly Normal

Not much happening around the old town at the moment, apart from the tennis of course.  Due to the omicron variant of covid running rampant many folk are self isolating or at least limiting their movements.  

The CBD is very quiet again traffic, although not back to lockdown levels, is very quiet also.  Lots of workplaces are continuing to work from home and public transport use is very light.

Although not required, many people, including myself, are wearing masks outdoors again.  We are still required to wear masks indoors in public environments.

I was back at the Shrine yesterday for the second week in a row, which is nearly a record for attendance in the last two years.  Although not a lot of visitors compared to the non covid days there appeared to be a few more interstate and overseas travellers around.  I spoke to some young girls from Indonesia who are studying law at Melbourne Uni, so apparently there are some overseas students returning to their studies here.

Of course normally this time of year the city and visitor attractions such as the Shrine would be very busy with people in town for the tennis, interstate visitors on holidays, backpackers, cruise liners in town, international visitors here for our summer and overseas students arriving to begin their studies.  Alas at the moment most of this is not to be, lets hope things get back to normal as soon as possible although we have been saying this for the last two years.

Lots of people are still on holidays and don't return to work and school until after Australia Day.  We have been told that there are lots of school bookings for tours of the Shrine and we will be busy with school tours once the schools are back.

The vaccination figures are still reasonably static however the registration of a fourth vaccine, Novavax, to be used in Australia may attract some of the vaccine hesitant to get vaccinated.

Vaccinations

Doses by Age Band First / Second

STATE	0+	0+	12+	12+
NSW	82.4%	79.2%	94.6%	93.0%
Victoria	82.0%	78.8%	93.8%	92.3%
Queensland	78.7%	74.2%	90.7%	87.6%
SA	81.4%	76.5%	92.5%	88.9%
ACT	88.8%	84.0%	>99%	>99%
Tasmania	87.0%	81.4%	98.0%	94.3%
NT	76.2%	70.6%	89.6%	85.3%
WA	80.3%	73.2%	93.6%	86.7%
Australia	82.3%	78.1%	94.5%	91.8%

Victoria's daily infection figures are continuing to decline but given we received the results of only 43,000 PCR tests in the last 24 hours, compared the NSW's 88,000 I still have doubts about the accuracy of our numbers.

Furthermore Victoria is depending on the self reporting of infection numbers by people who are testing positive using RATs.  It would be interesting one day to find out how many people are keeping mum about their infectious status rather than self reporting.  I am going out on a limb here and suggesting at least 50%.

The good news though is that the Victorian virus hospitalisation numbers are declining with 1,096 virus patients currently in Victorian hospitals compared to 1,173 two days ago.  ICU figures are also down slightly from 125 to 121 and ventilator numbers are down from 42 to 34.

Now the bad news, in the last 24 hours there were 79 deaths Australia wide due to the virus, of these 46 were in NSW, 20 in Victoria and Queensland has joined the party with 13.  Maybe that will prompt more Queenslanders to get themselves vaccinated.

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 21 January 2021 – Day 83 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%
17/01					22,429	29,504
18/01	1,853,775	51,320	95.8%	664,238	20,180	29,830	695,725	326,356	235,035	91.6%
19/01	1,954,977	79,132	94.4%	685,007	20,769	32,297				91.7%
20/01					21,966	30,825
21/01	2,085,483	60,232	94.5%	717,692	18,167	25,168	643,298	259,132	252,399	91.8%

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 21 January 2022 – Day 83 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	8
17/01									31	6
18/01	51,320	5,048	416	128	20,180	1,152	127	43	58	22
19/01		5,298	425	130		1,173	125	42	67	18
20/01									55	10
21/01	60,232	5,134	419	132	18,167	1,096	121	34	79	20
22/01