Week 5 - Wednesday 20 April 2022 - Reasonably Covid Normal

Welcome to week five of the new weekly blog.  

This morning we have been advised of the following changes to the covid rules and restrictions.  These changes apply from 11.59pm in the evening on Friday 23/04.  The major changes that will affect most Victorian citizens is the the requirement to QR code register at hospitality venues no longer applies and we will not have show our vaccination status at hospitality venues.  Masks will no longer be required in most situations and the rules for isolation of close contacts have been relaxed.

The following has been lifted from The Age online;

• Patrons will no longer have to show their vaccination status at any venue;
• Check-ins will no longer be required at any venue;
• Masks will no longer be required in schools, hospitality, retail or any events;
• Close contacts will no longer have to quarantine but will have to wear a mask indoors, avoid sensitive settings and record at least five negative rapid tests over the seven days that would have been the self-quarantine period;
• All restrictions in hospitals, except for mask-wearing will be removed;
• Events with more than 30,000 people will no longer require public health pre-approval;
• People who have had COVID-19 will now be exempt from testing or quarantine for 12 weeks, up from 8 weeks; and
• Individuals will be required to notify their workplace and social contacts. Workplaces will not have to notify exposed workers.

This is good news, particularly with Anzac day occurring next Monday.  This will be the first Anzac day for two years that will not be affected by restrictions due to covid.  I am attending the Shrine on Anzac day for two shifts, 10.00am the 1.00pm and 1.00pm to 4.00pm.  I am leaving the dawn service shift up to some other volunteers who are possibly keener than I.

You may recall that all commemoration services were banned for Anzac day 2020 and people improvised with services in their driveways as they weren't even allowed to congregate in their streets.  This was early days in our first major lockdown and I think at that stage the whole thing was still a bit of a novelty, my word hasn't that novelty worn off!

Anzac day 2021 saw a small service at the Shrine with extremely limited numbers and horrors of horrors a fence around the Shrine forecourt to control the limited numbers allowed to attend.  This fence attracted a lot of criticism and when I mentioned it to the Shrine CEO a little while ago he still wasn't seeing the funny side of it.

I think it was Good Friday on 10 April 2020 when we had entered our first round of lockdown and we possibly realised how serious this pandemic thing was going to, at that stage we didn't even know what an epidemiologist was, let alone know how to spell it and how many of them we had in Australia.

Of course at that time we all thought that this pandemic thing was going to be a bit of a flash in the pan and life would be back to normal in a few months.  How wrong we were!

Here we are over two years later and we are still reporting daily new infection nationally in the 10's of thousands, thousands in hospitals and regular daily deaths.

Nobody can say that I am not pulling my weight in the fight against this dreaded bug, I am booked in to get my 4th covid shot next week and my flu shot all at the same time, it will be interesting to see how all that goes.

In the last 24 hours Victoria reported 10,600 new covid infections and NSW 15,400.  These figures appear to be fairly consistent over the last few weeks.  The Victorian government is telling us that the new daily infection modelling is showing a flattening and then a decrease in the numbers over the next few weeks.

The Victorian hospitalisation figures are a little concerning.  The number of Victorians in hospital with covid has gone up to 437 from 391 last week and alarmingly the number in ICU has gone up from 19 34 and from 2 to 12 in ICU.  I would think that these figures would be of concern to the health authorities.

In the last 24 hours 14 Victorians died with covid and 14 the day before.  These number seem higher than previously but that could be due to lack of reporting over the Easter long weekend.

    Corona Virus Weekly Stats – From 22 March 2022 – Week 5 Reasonably Covid Normal

D	Aus Infected	Aus Increase Daily	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase Daily	NSW Increase Daily	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
22/03	3,975,559	32,379	96.7%	1,195,239	9,594	9,594	387,622	211,527	52,983	94.9%
30/03	4,436,572	50,082	96.8%	1,271,494	11,749	25,235	479,116	258,112	58,488	95.1%
04/04	4,715,763	35,015	96.8%	1,320,678	10,011	15,572	500,914	266,110	63,545	95.2%
13/04	5,207,650	54,185	96.9%	1,410,828	10,907	18,265	443,901	234,081	60,756	95.3%
20/04	5,494,804	36,856	97.0%	1,471,567	10,628	15,414	311,570	188,676	53,518	95.4%
27/04

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – From 22 March 2022 – Week 5 Reasonably Covid Normal
Date	Aus New Infection Daily	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection Daily	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
22/03	32,379	2,090	93	21	9,594	256	24	5	26	7
30/03	50,082	2,446	100	21	11,749	280	18	5	28	7
04/04	35,015	2,645	108	21	10,011	305	17	3	7	1
13/04	54,185	3,147	126	29	10,907	391	19	2	39	14
20/04	36,856	3,325	155	39	10,628	437	34	12	35	14
27/04