Blog Day 681 - Saturday 19 February 2022 - Day 1 of Covid Nearly Normaller

Back on deck today after a few days absence, naturally as life gets normaller and normaller the imposts on my time get greater and occasionally, sadly, the blog gets pushed to one side.

In the last couple of day I have had my shift at the Shrine, attendance at my U3A class and my first expedition to Southland in months. Plus general life things such as chores around the home, including cutting the kindling, feeding the hogs and sitting on the stoop whittlin.

No blog tomorrow as joy of joys I have a 7th birthday party to attend, at least there will be party pies and cup cake, I hope.

As from 6.00pm last night there has been a further relaxation of four covid rules.  The change in rules that affect the general public relate to QR codes and hospitality.  It is no longer necessary to scan your QR code when entering general retail premises, schools and workplaces.  However it is still necessary to scan in when entering hospitality premises, including cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars etc.

This is already causing some confusion, I walked into a local bottle shop this morning that is attached to a hotel.  Is a bottle shop attached to a hotel retail or hospitality, did I have to scan my QR code or not?  The young lady who served me had no idea, so erring on the side of caution I scanned the QR code.

This will spell the end of QR codes, I think that people will not bother scanning anywhere from here on in.  As we have seen in the past where there is confusion, doubt or the possibility of a loophole people will take advantage it the situation.

The other major change as at 6.00pm last night is the scrapping of density limits for hospitality venues including dancing places.  

So, the major remaining covid restriction on the general public is the wearing of masks.  Having to wear masks in the workplace is major reason why people aren't returning to their workplace.  It is just a pain in the backside for the rest of us.  We are expecting a major announcement in regard to the wearing of facemasks in the next week or so.

And now for the big news, the good folk of Queensland have cracked the 90% mark for their first and second vaccinations for the 16 pluses, although they are still lagging behind pretty much the rest of the nation in first, second and third vaccinations.

VACCINATIONS AGE

Doses by Age Band 16+

STATE	FIRST	SECOND	THIRD
NSW	95.7%	94.2%	50.8%
Victoria	94.6%	93.2%	53.2%
Queensland	92.5%	90.5%	45.4%
SA	94.2%	91.6%	52.0%
ACT	>99%	>99%	64.9%
Tasmania	>99%	97.4%	52.0%
NT	91.0%	88.0%	44.0%
WA	97.0%	94.2%	54.1%
Australia	96.0%	94.1%	51.3%

Some of today's figures are looking decidedly dodgy.  NSW active infections went from 51,000 on 15/02 to 109,000 today.  This was caused by 60,000 new infections being added to the NSW total on 17/02.  Somewhere, somehow the NSW health department missed 60,000 infections, I thought that sort of thing only happened in Victoria.

The sort of adjustment described above makes one wonder about the accuracy of any of the figures provided by these bureaucratic authorities.

Anyway, as reported today, Victoria has reported 6,280 new infections which continues a downward trend, Victorian active infections also continues to decline.  Currently there are 365 Victorians in hospital due to the virus which is down from 441 on 15/02.  ICU patients are also down at 55 and there are 13 on ventilators.

Daily deaths in Victoria are still ranging in the teens with recent highs and lows of 9 and twenty deaths per day.  I think that this range is more of a result of recording and reporting than actual variances in death numbers.  Over the last two weeks Victoria has averaged close to 15 covid deaths per day each week.

I see that over the last couple of days we have cracked 3,000,000 Australians being infected with the covid virus during the full term of the pandemic.  Well done all.

    Corona Virus Daily Stats – 19 February 2021 – Day 1 of Covid Nearly Normaller

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					7,224	8,183
13/02	2,897,089	22,049	95.9%	976,256	7,223	6,686	176,646	58,741	54,494	93.9%
14/02					7,104	6,184
15/02	2,938,602	16,876	85.9%	991,522	8,162	8,201	163,283	50,802	50,967	94.0%
16/02					8,149	10,463
17/02					8,501	9,995
18/02					6,935	9,243
19/02	3,013,018	20,589	96.0%	987,725	6,280	7,615	218,167	108,729	48,420	94.1%
20/02

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 19 February 2022 – Day 1 of Covid Nearly Normaller
Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
									34
38,379	4,670	348	130	14,553	768	99	31	69	25
								85	34
22,508	4,465	314	133	11,240	707	79	29	67	36
				7,810				83	41
21,602	4,139	291	122	7,169	652	73	28	44	6
								46	7
25,254	3,803	271	97	9,785	575	72	30	51	20
								63	21
								65	16
25,445	3,348	261	77	8,521	553	82	23	48	13
								67	19
22,049	3,018	224	87	7,223	465	62	17	45	18
									2
16,876	2,977	228	84	8,162	441	67	14	36	20
								63	18
								66	9
								37	14
20,589	2,432	191	70	6,280	365	55	13	43	20