Blog Day 666 - Friday 04 February 2022 - Day 97 of Covid Nearly Normal

No wonder the CBD is battling to get some sort of normalcy and life about it.  The CEO of the NAB was on the radio this morning and he said that only 3% of the NAB CBD staff are currently working in the office.

The ANZ later confirmed that their situation would be something similar.

This means that at least 6,000 office workers are not travelling to the CBD every day, and that is only the staff of two banks.  Imagine if you added in the staff of the big law firms, accountancy and consulting firms, businesses like BHP that would all be experiencing similar situations and all the smaller businesses based in the CBD.

I haven't been into the CBD since before Christmas, but even then the city was dead, empty shops, lots of graffiti, dirty streets and shop fronts and a council that is more worried about bike paths and smoking ceremonies.

The good news is that apart from some empty shops the suburbs appear to be doing OK.  In Bentleigh East four to five story apartment blocks are still being built and once these are occupied it will have to be good for local retail and hospitality.

One of these apartment blocks is being built near me and they have dug a very, very deep hole for the underground car park and the hole is now lined with concrete.  After our big hailstorm and rainstorm last week we had our own local swimming pool, all it lacked was a diving board.  It took them two days to pump all the water out.

Vaccination percentages continue to increase however the jolly folk in Qld are still lagging behind coming second last in the vaccination stakes at 88.4% of 12+ of the population double vaxxed.  This is second only to NT bringing up the rear of the field at 86.2% of the eligible population double vaxxed.

Meanwhile NSW and Victoria are double vaxxed at 93.2% and 92.5% respectively.

To date 8.5m boosters (third shot) have been administered nationally of which 2.2m were administered in Victoria.

Doses by Age Band First / Second

STATE	0+	0+	12+	12+
NSW	84.4%	79.4%	94.8%	93.2%
Victoria	84.3%	79.0%	94.0%	92.5%
Queensland	80.6%	74.9%	91.1%	88.4%
SA	84.0%	77.4%	93.1%	89.9%
ACT	92.1%	84.2%	>99%	>99%
Tasmania	89.7%	82.2%	98.7%	95.3%
NT	78.7%	71.3%	90.0%	86.2%
WA	83.6%	76.2%	95.2%	90.2%
Australia	84.6%	78.8%	95.0%	92.6%

In the last 24 hours there were 11,240 new infections reported in Victoria with 12,632 reported in the previous 24 hours.  The Victorian new infection numbers seem to have stalled a bit around the 11,000 per day mark, but the good news is there doesn't appear to be any significant increase in the numbers.

It will be interesting to see what affect the return to school has on the infection numbers.

Meanwhile in Victoria the hospitalisation, ICU and ventilator numbers continue to decline with 707 patients in Victorian hospitals with covid, down from 768 two days ago, of these 79 are in ICU, down from 99 and 29 are on ventilators, down from 31.

Although the hospital numbers are declining the state health system is still operating under Code Brown restrictions, which means the hospitals are unable to undertake any elective surgery, no matter how serious or urgent, and outpatient access is restricted.

These restriction to elective surgery obviously don't apply if you are an AFL football player and need surgery on a knee or ankle to allow you to play footy.  And how could anybody in their right mind argue with that!

Meanwhile people are still dying with covid with 36 Victorians dying in the last 24 hours and 31 the day before that.  NSW recorde 31 & 38 covid deaths in the same time period.  

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 04 February 2021 – Day 97 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
01/02					11,311	12,818
02/02	2,614,706	38,379	94.9%	877,553	14,553	11,807	293,675	129,942	73,886	92.4%
03/02					12,157	12,632
04/02	2,668,333	22,508	95.0%	900,950	11,240	10,698	253,603	102,847	65,968	92.6%
05/02

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 04 February 2022 – Day 97 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
01/02										34
02/02	38,379	4,670	348	130	14,553	768	99	31	69	25
03/02									85	34
04/02	22,508	4,465	314	133	11,240	707	79	29	67	36
05/02