Wednesday 22 June 2022

Life somewhat affected by covid continues although a whole lot of covid rule changes come into effect at 11.59pm Friday night.  These rules largely involve the return to work for unvaccinated folk, as in unvaccinated folk can return to work in most situations.  There are exceptions of course, people working in health care, nursing homes and so on still need to be vaccinated.  Of course if I had my way the unvaccinated would have to walk around with a big sign around their neck declaring their status and ringing a bell to alert all the vaccinated folk of their approach.

Life outside of covid continues, the war in Ukraine rolls along with casualties on both sides, the state government seems to be ignoring anything to do with covid as there is a state election looming, football players, especially Collingwood football players are proving that "boys will be boys" even if they are 26 years old and being paid $800,000 a year to kick a footy around.

Galloping inflation worldwide is pushing up interest rates and quelle houreur the poor little Australian snowflakes might have to pay a whopping 3% interest on their mortgages.  Any of my uncomplaining baby boomer readers remember mortgage rates of anything between 13.5% & 17.5%?  Maybe we didn't take an overseas trip every year and possibly smashed avocado on toast hadn't been invented.

The other big story currently is the lack of staff, particularly in retail and hospitality.  Many of the cafes and shops around the suburbs have signs in their windows advertising for staff.  I am not sure what is happening in the CBD as I haven't been in there for a while but I could imagine the situation there would be the same, that is for the businesses that are still open.

Many of these vacant positions were in normal times filled by casual staff, often overseas students, backpackers and migrants.  Due to covid travel restriction only recently being relaxed or lifted entirely these visitors have still not returned in any meaningful numbers.

Due to a friend of mine having a bung knee and being on crutches I have been rostered on for dog working duties.  Over the last few weeks I have been taking Lunar the labradoodle for a walk, she is only 18 months old but very well behaved, most of the time.  I am terrified that she might have to have a poo on our walks and I would have to pick it up!  So far so good!

Me and Lunar (and she is allowed on the furniture)

For the first time in a while I have had a bit of a look at our covid figures and there appears to be some discrepancies in the numbers being reported.

In the middle of May 2022 Victoria was reporting nearly 14,000 new infections a day with with over 500 covid patients in hospital, 31 in ICU and 8 patients on ventilators.  A month later we are reporting around 8,000 new infections a day, but with still 400 plus in patients in hospital due to covid and 29 in ICU and 10 on ventilators.

So, daily new infections have dropped by approximately 40%, hospital numbers by around 20% but ICU numbers have dropped by only 6% and ventilator numbers have actually increased by 233%. 

Meanwhile death numbers are remaining high with 24 covid related deaths reported in the last 24 hours and 18 the day before that.  In the last seven days 139 people have died in Victoria with covid.  In the seven days leading up to 17/05 106 Victorians died with covid. So if the daily new infection numbers are dropping why aren't the hospital and death numbers dropping proportionally?

And the big question, why is the state government so silent about it??

Corona Virus Weekly Stats – From 22 March 2022 – Week 9 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	5,780,569	24,135	97.0%	1,532,685	10,734	12,188	340,481	157,589	51,835	95.4%
04/05	6,072394	42,725	97.1%	1,597,464	10,779	11,939	317,353	139,572	57,154	95.5%
11/05	6,387,747	53,338	97.2%	1,673533	13,973	12,265	350,262	137,336	67,608	95.5%
17/05	6,683,581	33,281	97.2%	1,747,794	13,694	10,972	382,835	135,280	77,809	95.6%
25/05
15/06					8,687
22/06	7,885,040	30,303	97.5%	2,049,802	7,769	9,472	214,105	88,746	41,690	95.8%

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – From 22 March 2022 – Week 9 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	24,135	3,385	144	N/A	10,734	456	32	8	33	13
04/05	42,725	3,111	148	N/A	10,779	473	25	6	44	11
11/05	53,338	3,102	114	N/A	13,973	533	33	5	40	17
17/05	35,281	3,154	129	N/A	13,694	516	31	3	49	20
15/06		2,887	104	N/A	8,687	476	35	8	57	18
22/06	30,303	3,029	110	N/A	9,472	402	29	10	59	24

 

Might have a look at some international covid figures next week.