Blog Day 654 - Sunday 23 January 2022 - Day 85 of Covid Nearly Normal

Now here is a funny thing, it was reported in the press yesterday that the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)  has reworked average temperatures for previous years to make earlier records cooler and recent records warmer.  Why would they do this I hear you ask?  Well, buggered if I know I reply, however if I was a betting man I would wager that these adjustments make the alleged range of alleged increasing global temperatures allegedly greater..  I would have thought that temperatures are temperatures and don't need analysis or reinterpretation, but there you go and what would I know.  (Although not having any knowledge of a matter hasn't prevented me having an opinion in the past 😀).

I notice that we now have new type of heat wave, the few days of low to mid 30's that we are currently experiencing are now classified by the BoM as a "low level heat wave", whatever that means..

The guys and gals at the BoM must be looking for things to do to fill in their day.

Lots of information coming out this morning about arrangements for the return to school shortly for students and teachers at the end of the holidays.  As I am neither a teacher or a student (thank god) I have not taken much interest in these arrangements.  

Have I mentioned in the past that I hated school?  After the first day of kindergarten there wasn't one day of my school life that I went voluntarily and happily.  The only reason I went happily to the first day was that I didn't know what to expect, but I soon learnt to hate it. 

When we were cleaning up at home after Mum died I found my old school reports, my high school reports were not particularly complimentary, and these were written in the days when teachers were not obliged to be politically correct in their comments, so maybe you could imagine what they said.  (I must find the reports one day and give you some quotes).

However, all is well that ends well, I ended up passing most things, finished school at form four and went to work.  I eventually went to uni (Monash, a proper university) as a mature age student and after six or so years of part time study was rewarded with a business degree.  So, high school teachers I probably wasn't as dull as what we all thought.

Now enough of my cheerful reminiscing, and back to the real world, including covid.

Vaccination by Age & State

Doses by Age Band First / Second

STATE	0+	0+	12+	12+
NSW	82.9%	79.2%	94.6%	93.0%
Victoria	82.5%	78.8%	93.8%	92.3%
Queensland	79.1%	74.3%	90.8%	87.8%
SA	82.0%	76.7%	92.6%	89.1%
ACT	89.5%	84.1%	>99%	>99%
Tasmania	87.5%	81.6%	98.2%	94.6%
NT	76.9%	70.7%	89.7%	85.5%
WA	81.0%	73.6%	93.9%	87.3%
Australia	82.8%	78.2%	94.6%	91.9%

The new daily infections in Victoria seem to be falling regularly and rather dramatically with 13,000 new infections reported in the last 24 hours and 16,000 in the 24 hours before that.  The NSW infections also appear to be declining with 20,300 new infections reported in that state in the last 24 hours.

Who would have thought that there would be a time when we reckoned 13,000 new infections in a day was good news.

Something unusual has happened with the daily number of active infections in Victoria.  On 19 January Victoria reported 253,000 active infections however after a downward adjustment of 154,000 was made on 20/01 the number of active infections was reported as 99,000 and a further downward adjustment of 31,000 made on 22/01 has bought Victoria's active infection numbers down to 69,000 as at 23/01.

Any accountant worth his or her salt would look at these adjustments and say "what the heck is this all about'?  Does this mean all the figures are similarly compromised or is this just correcting a once only cock up, who would know.

Although Victorian hospital numbers are declining from 1,096 on 21/01 to 1,002 as at 23/01, the same can't be said for the ICU figures at 120, down from 121 two days ago and the ventilator figures up from 34 to 44 over the same period.

Fifty eight people died due to the virus nationally in the last 24 hours, with 14 of those in Victoria, 34 in NSW and 10 in Qld.

Nearly 34 degrees in Melbourne at the moment although a pleasant 23 indoors with the air con on.  Looks like we have a low level heat wave on our hands.  Might be warm enough this evening to have three V&Ts instead of the usual ration of two.

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 23 January 2021 – Day 85 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			245,040
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			253,827	91.7%
20/01					21,966	30,825			99,976
21/01	2,085,483	60,232	94.5%	717,692	18,167	25,168	643,298	259,132	99,408	91.8%
22/01					16,016	20,148			68,675
23/01	2,196,870	48,743	94.6%	748,418	13,091	20,324	436,964	238,645	68,675	91.9%
24/01

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 23 January 2022 – Day 85 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	93	25
22/01									74	20
23/01	48,743	5,024	387	138	13,091	1,002	120	44	58	14
24/01