Wednesday 17 August 2022

Tomorrow, the 18th of August, is National Vietnam Veterans' Day and the 56th anniversary of the battle of Long Tan.  This year is also the 60th anniversary of Australia's first involvement in the Vietnam war.

Australia's involvement in Vietnam began on a small scale in 1962 with the arrival of the Australian Army Training Team (AATTV) however the commitment increased dramatically in 1965 with the arrival of the first of the infantry battalions.

During Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War nearly 60,000 Australian servicemen and women served in Vietnam and 521 of those were killed and 3,000 wounded.  Of course many of those who served and died were national servicemen.

Australia's involvement in Vietnam formally ended in January 1973, although the bulk of the Australian forces had been withdrawn by then.

The Vietnam Veterans Association is holding a service at the Shrine tomorrow which will include a concert with the likes of Normie Rowe performing.  

The program will include a tribute to Australia’s and New Zealand’s Vietnam War fallen and feature Vietnam-era music by entertainers Normie Rowe, John Schumann, Mike Brady, Denise Drysdale, and Marcie Jones.

The service begins at 11.00pm on the forecourt at the Shrine.

Now back to the heady days of covid, and today also the current wave of influenza making it's way through the community.

The numbers behind the table below are not particularly clear but I am guessing that the column headed 2022 has the total numbers of reported influenza cases by state and nationally.  My best guess is that the numbers in red are the daily reported influenza cases as at 31/07.

Some people are saying that covid is no worse than the flu.  Well, have a look at this, for the period 01/01/2022 to 31/07/2022 Victoria has recorded 2,237,019 covid infections and 4,659 covid related deaths.  In the same period Victoria recorded 34,484 flu infections and 246 deaths.  Enough said.

Influenza

Fortnight ending 31 July 22

STATE	2022	VAR	NET
NSW	110,594		2,708
Victoria	34,484		426
Queensland	36,566		1,491
WA	10,502		1,936
SA	10,418		923
Tasmania	2,639		85
ACT	2,650		64
NT	4,720		29
Australia	212,573		7,662

Hospitalisations 1,581   ICU 103   Deaths 246

I am not overly confident with the accuracy of today's figures, the national daily covid infections has gone down from 27,000 last week to 13,000 today, looks a bit dodgy to me.

Victoria has reported 4,700 new daily covid infections in the last 24 hours compared to 5,900 last week.

Victoria is currently reporting 518 covid related hospitalisations with 22 of those in ICU and 7 on ventilators.  There seems to be a pattern emerging of a regular decline in these numbers.

Daily death numbers are down in Victoria but subject to daily fluctuations with 15 covid related deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Nationally there has been 13,002 deaths reported for the pandemic, of these 4,990 deaths have been reported in Victoria, 4,581 in NSW and 1,774 in Qld.

   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%
29/06	8,078,931	24,986	97.5%	2,091,140	10,777	11,067	234,276	104,191	43,174	95.9%
06/07	8,324,143	32,886	97.6%	2,156,525	10,056	13,775	280,368	124,706	50,376	95.9%
13/07	8,605813	44,183	97.6%	2,223,522	11,176	10,622	316,773	135,832	58,357	96.0%
20/07
27/07
03/08	9,517,112	41,238	97.8%	2,447,381	9,122	16,648	327,373	171,284	55,195	96.1%
10/08	9,711,780	27,058	98.7%	2,492,023	5,898	11,356	257,259	150,347	37,085	96.2%
17/08	9,843,529	13,283	97.9%	2,523,433	4,732	8,064	195,139	117163	26,476	96.2%

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
29/06	24,986	3,237	115	N/A	10,777	468	35	9	36	23
06/07	32,886	3,757	137	N/A	10,056	523	29	5	38	23
13/07	44,183	4,477	137	N/A	11,176	739	36	5	57	20
20/07
27/07
03/08	41,238	4,861	162	N/A	9,122	743	40	8	65	6
10/08	27,058	4,416	126	N/A	5,898	610	30	8	132	52
17/08	13,283	3,944	129	N/A	4,732	518	22	7	42	15