Blog Day 673 - Friday 11 February 2022 - Day 104 of Covid Nearly Normal

The word on the street is that the Code Brown alert is to be lifted next week.  I am not sure what this means but probably opening up hospitals to elective surgery and more normal operations for hospital emergency departments.

A couple of interesting memorial services being held in Melbourne today for two men who passed away recently who were very different people but in some ways very similar.

The first is Andrew (the colt from Kooyong) Peacock who died recently in the US aged 82.  Peacock was at one stage Liberal royalty, leader of the Federal opposition for the Liberal party and at some stage was destined to be prime minister although it didn't quite work out that way.  Peacock was minister for foreign affairs in the Fraser Liberal government and upon retirement from politics was appointed as Australia's ambassador to the US and lived mainly in the US from then until his death.  

Peacock was like a number of Australian foreign ministers who were unsuccessful at their tilt for the top job but were very successful as foreign ministers and took that success into their private lives.

The other Melbourne luminary whose memorial service is being held today is John (pig's arse) Elliott's. Elliott passed away recently a few days short of his 80th birthday.  In complete contrast to Peacock's church held State memorial service, Elliott's is being held at Princes Park the home of the Carlton Football Club.  At the height of his fame Elliott was the chairman of the Fosters/Elders IXL corporate group, he was also Federal president of the Liberal Party and the longest serving president of the Carlton Football Club.

For all of his business & sporting success Elliott suffered from a fall from grace.  A couple of bad business deals ended up with him going bankrupt in 2005 or thereabouts.  Around the same time he was unceremoniously dumped as Carlton president due to the club being involved in salary cap rorts. 

Although Peacock was urbane and smooth Elliott's persona was much different and presented as a knockabout, drinker, smoker and hard tough businessman.  Despite their differences both had ambitions to be prime minister of this country, although in later years Elliott denied this. 

As it seems both politics and business can no longer tolerate "characters" it is doubtful that we will see the likes of either of these two men in public office or private enterprise again.

The following vaccination table now includes percentage of the population that has received the third (booster dose).  However for some unknown reason the age band is now 16+ whereas up until the last couple of days it was 12+ so the percentages look as bit higher.  This bit of manipulation of the figures has brought Qld over the 90% double vaccinated figure.  More than one way to skin a cat, eh Flashy?

Doses by Age Band 16+

STATE	FIRST	SECOND	THIRD
NSW	95.6%	94.1%	46.5%
Victoria	94.4%	93.1%	47.6%
Queensland	92.3%	90.2%	41.4%
SA	94.0%	91.3%	47.3%
ACT	>99%	>99%	59.4%
Tasmania	>99%	96.9%	46.8%
NT	90.7%	87.6%	39.7%
WA	96.6%	93.1%	47.0%
Australia	95.8%	93.8%	46.3%

In the three Eastern states the daily infection rates are sticking stubbornly around the same numbers, the Victorian daily rates are between 8,500 and 10,000 new infections per day, NSW has between 9,000 and 10,000+ and Qld in the high 5,000s to nearly 7,000.

Nationally and in Victoria the hospital numbers are declining, slowly, but declining which is better than increasing.  But as can be seen below the decline in hospital numbers is not being matched by a decline in death numbers.

In the last three days Victoria has recorded 21, 16 and 13 covid related deaths per day; NSW 19, 24 and 20;  Qld 14, 15 and 17 for the same period.

Although the death figures have not blown out they are also not reducing and there still appears to be some irregularities in the reporting of the death numbers.

That reminds me, for my many Tasmanian readers I should have a look at some Tasmanian numbers, I will do that in the next blog.

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 11 February 2021 – Day 104 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					7,810	8,389
06/02	2,727,303	21,602	95.1%	915,929	7,169	7,893	227,841	89,861	60,917	92.7%
07/02					8,275	7,437
08/02	2,777,432	25,254	95.1%	933,989	9,785	9,690	205,543	76,465	58,449	92.8%
09/02					9,908	10,312
10/02					9,391	10,130
11/02	2,850,969	25,445	95.8%	961,889	8,521	8,950	185,163	64,813	55,617	93.8%
12/02

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 11 February 2022 – Day 104 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					7,810				83	41
06/02	21,602	4,139	291	122	7,169	652	73	28	44	6
07/02									46	7
08/02	25,254	3,803	271	97	9,785	575	72	30	51	20
09/02									63	21
10/02									65	16
11/02	25,445	3,348	261	77	8,521	553	82	23	48	13
12/02