Thursday and some big news was announced in Australia by the government recommending use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for only Australians aged over 60. This followed the death of a 52 year old man following blood clotting.
There have been 60 cases of blood clotting following 3.8 million shots being administered in the country. While most of those cases were out of hospital – two women had died.
Over two million Australians aged 50-59 who were yet to be vaccinated would now have to wait for Pfizer shots. 815,000 Australians who had already had their first AstraZeneca shot were advised to get a second AstraZeneca one.
In the past week there had been 12 cases of blood clots with seven aged 50-59.
The decision was another blow to the country’s vaccine roll out, with a further restriction on the use of the only locally produced vaccine meant we would be more reliant on mRNA imports and may increase vaccine hesitancy in the wider population.
The Insider reported that widely dispersed Chinese vaccines produced by Sinovac and Sinopharm have not been as effective as Western vaccines.
Beijing based consultancy firm advised 95 countries have received Chinese vaccines, out of 800 million doses promised 272 million have already been delivered.
The use of the vaccine was seen a foreign policy projection by China but for many poor countries it was an offer they were more than happy to take China up on while there was sign of receiving Pfizer or Moderna in the immediate future en masse.
A case in point was the African island of the Seychelles who had by March 2021 had more than half of its population fully vaccinated even ahead of places of Israel. More than half of those doses – 57% – were Sinopharm ones. Yet in May cases in the country shot up with a third of cases involving those who had been fully vaccinated.
Other countries like Bahrain and Mongolia that also used heavily Sinopharm offered explanations. Bahrain’s health undersecretary advised more than 90s of those hospitalised were not vaccinated. Mongolia attributed a rise in case to the end of a lockdown.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain both Sinopharm customers have started offerring Pfizer boosters to those fully vaccinated with Sinopharm.
In Chile where Sinovac was mostly used to fully vaccinate 60% of the population so far has imposed another lockdown.
Comparatively a country like Israel seemed to had reached that threshold using American and European vaccines. Earlier in June with 60% of the population fully vaxxed cases had dropped to 15 a day and were now close to zero.
Pfizer and Moderna were mRNA vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm used an inactivated virus.
A study using a cohort of people under 60 and on average 31 showed a efficacy rate of 79% against but the virus was far more a threat to people over 60.
Dr Kim Mulholland studying data from the Seychelles put the Sinopharm’s efficacy rate at about 50%.
A large study in Brazil carried out about the World Health Organisation showed Sinovac had an efficacy rate of about 50.6%.
Pfizer and Moderna gave over 90%.
Six hundred million Chinese people had been vaccinated with such shots, with the ongoing threat of the new Delta variant it remained to be seen how effective China’s vaccines would be at avoiding serious illness and deaths to the millions who had been vaccinated by them.
The details were yet to be worked out but those travelling to Victoria ski fields for winter would need to provide proof of a negative COVID test result in the three days before hitting the slopes but not necessarily the surrounding townships.
On tuesday five new COVID cases were reported following 17,538 tests and 14,870 vaccinations at state-run sites on the same day.
Four of the cases were from the Kings Park apartment complex that now had 163 residents in quarantine and the fifth was a nurse.
The nurse, who had received a vaccination, had been caring for COVID patients at Epping Private Hospital transferred over from the Arcare Maidstone aged care home.
Four days earlier the South Melbourne Markets as an exposure site and was getting a full clean.
Meanwhile in my home state of Queensland, the stats were in and it turns out a strong response to COVID also proved better for the economy.
Treasurer Cameron Dick when handing down the State’s budget, forecast his government’s deficit to be $3.4 billion in the current financial year down form the original forecast of $8.6 billion.
This was supposed to be due to a increase in revenue coming off stronger than predicted economic growth of 3.25 per cent which was thirteen times more than originally forecast.
Unemployment is also expected to fall below 6.0 per cent by 2022.
The 2021/22 Queensland budget would also shift The Queensland Titles Registry, valued at $7.8billion dollars, to the state’s Debt Retirement Fund with its ongoing revenue offesetting state debt.
As the race was on for people to get their two doses of the vaccine a team of VA Boston Healthcare system researchers found that one dose of the Moderna vaccine had led to their healthcare workers being 95% less likely to contract the virus compared to unvaccinated colleagues.
Their advice was still to get two doses which could offer protection of up to 96% but that just one shot could protect against severe disease and hospitalisation. The study did not focus on how effective one dose was against the new Delta variant.
Sixty four per cent of American adults had received their first dose as earlier in the week the death toll in the country had gone beyond 600,000.
In Great Britain a road map of how COVID could potentially play out in the community in the months and years ahead was laid out by experts speaking in Parliament to MPs on the science committee.
Thursday and my home state Queensland announced a new border declaration pass to come into effect starting 1am Saturday. Those planning to travel to Sydney from Queensland have been told to reconsider.
Restrictions on those arriving from Melbourne are set to remain until at least next week.
The new system mirrors Victoria’s as it happens with a green or amber pass issued based on where the traveller is coming from.
Queensland is expecting more than 70 flights to arrive from Sydney on Thursday.
A man in Bondi who had not travelled overseas but been on flights with international crew had contracted COVID and now also a household contact of the man had too.
Victoria had no new cases as they looked to ease restrictions.
Queensland had six new cases in hotel quarantine and a total of 26.
With no new local cases Victoria moved ahead with their plans to ease lockdown restrictions which would end a 25km travel limit and allow cinemas and gyms to re-open.
More than 20 staff of Northern Hospital were isolating after coming into contact with a nurse who had become a case. She had worked at Epping Private Hospital taking care of COVID patients from the Arcare Maidstone aged care facility as well as then working shifts at the Northern Hospital.
The nurse also got her second dose of the vacccine at the Northern Hospitals vaccine clinic on June 14 leading to 30 staff having to go into isolation from there.
As the state moved to open up theatres a screening of Cruella at Crown Casino had now been listed as Tier 1 contact sites meaning anyone there had to get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Victoria had also been enjoying a higher supply of Pfizer vaccine in the wake of their most recent lockdown since May and that was due to end in July.
As AstraZeneca became more limited to whom it could be dispensed and confidence waned this placed extra demand on the limited amounts of Pfizer Australia had.
So here we are, it’s been something like five months since my last published post and a lot has happened since then. We’re now behind six months of news coverage, I’ve been keeping track of things but I’ve got to admit this is hardly an up to date diary. Also as I became busier with work and a few other matters, I have to admit, even keeping track of developments trailed off. When I get caught up, I’m bound to not really to have managed to have kept track of all major events.
There was also a change in circumstances, Europe opened back up, cases also went up but not at the previous rate deaths. Delta was a major game changer in terms of the spread and getting past measures that previously proved effective here in Australia. But that was more than six months ago and a new dominant strain hasn’t emerged at least not in my news coverage. Okay scratch that because since writing that last sentence Omnicrom is now very well known.
While there is a measure of success in places like the UK and so many have been vaccinated across the globe the challenge to vaccinate the whole world and mitigate new variants coming to pass remains ever present. Anti-vaxxers are coming to the fore, winter looms for the northern hemisphere and my home state is about to open up its borders having mitigated the spread of COVID for close to two years? Again that last sentence written over a month ago.
People seem ready to take a hit for life to go back to normal.
What will happen next?
I don’t know but I know on some level I will be writing about COVID for at least the next year but hopefully with less regularity.
I doubt I will get up to writing about August 2021 before Christmas has come and gone which will seem weird but I am committed to my path.
Again – scrap that.
I have thought about maybe doing posts clearly demarcated from COVID and not COVID but there is two problems with that. Probably then nobody would read the COVID posts and fair enough. And Two, it’s all part of it. I wore masks to the Brisbane International Film Festival for example. The dramatic events of March 2020 have given way to normalcy. This diary is no longer an average joe’s memory of historical events but rather a linking to news articles that covered said events and yet that became the Diary a long time ago and for a time capsule of how it felt to be observing the world as it went through this. Well like I said – I am committed.
June 14, 2021
As the G7 summit wrapped up in St Ives there was concern the town would see a spike in COVID cases. Two police officers and one protester at an Extinction Rebellion Camp had got it. The camp had liaised with police to meet every standard prescribed for a COVID safe event which I always find interesting as a term to use when discussing a mass gathering.
Five local venues closed their doors as a precaution.
In the United Kingdom I was relieved to hear that Prime Minister Boris Johnson would hold off on coming out of lockdown for another four weeks.
England was due to move to stage four of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown on 21 June, when venues and events would be allowed to operate without capacity limits and the cap on guests at weddings would be lifted. That meant limits would remain for sport clubs, cinemas and pubs and nightclubs would remain closed. Not nearly enough of a measure from where I was sitting but one that was none the less unexpected and welcomed by me.
It also meant people would be limited to six people or two households at a gathering.
Interestingly NHS England data showed on 6 June around a third of all hospital admissions were aged 55 or over, compared to a little over 70% on 6 March, and more than 80% on 6 December.
The UK government was also sending additional testing, tracing, isolation support and measures to maximise vaccine uptake in Birmingham, Blackpool, Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Liverpool City Region and Warrington.
The four weeks could allow for up to 10 million more second vaccine doses to be distributed according Health Minister Edward Argar.
June 15, 2021
Following a second clotting death in Australia involving the AstraZeneca there was talk of reviewing the age limit for the vaccine.
As of last week with three and a half million doses of the vaccine dispensed in Australia, there had been 35 definite cases of clotting and 13 probable ones. Out of those fifteen were still in hospital and one in Intensive Care.
The World Health Organisation reported in Australia there had been 30,262 confirmed cases of COVID with a daily increase of 14.
There had been 910 deaths in the country from COVID. One in the year so far on April 14th.
The European Union were not even putting in further orders for AstraZeneca.
Tuesday there was some good news in my household – my wife got the Pfizer vaccine. She had made a booking and went to a vaccine site at the Prince Charles Hospital for people in her age group.
This was a welcome development.
As I lamented the failure to vaccinate our more vulnerable I was happy my wife now had received a dose and of Pfizer.
Having gotten the AstraZeneca I had expected my wife to have to wait many more months until the end of the year to get her first dose.
As a husband you prefer your wife to be more protected than yourself and now she was.
In not so good news she was advised she wouldn’t automatically get a follow-up dose in three weeks time.
She had to make the booking herself and she was advised the efficacy would still be there if it took up to nine weeks. She made a booking for as soon as she could.
June 09
Wednesday and news in Australia must seem comical to overseas readers but here we go.
A couple left Melbourne on the 1st of June when it was in lockdown. They travelled through rural New South Wales and arrived in Queensland and Goondiwindi June 5th. After three days out in the community of the Sunshine Coast and one of them tested positive to COVID.
Questions were raised given their route away from the coast and the fact that when they left Melbourne it was in lockdown but it could be that the couple were re-locating for work which would have granted them exemption as well other approved reasons.
That would have to be established.
Also being established was more testing hours at the Sunshine Coast and more vaccine doses being delivered to the area too.
Speaking of locked down Melbourne restrictions were being lifted in the southern capital come Friday.
Now the limit you could travel was 25 kilometres – up from 10. There were no home gatherings allowed but students were going back to learning at school.
From Friday will be required indoors only and many businesses can re-open but with limited capacities.
One new local case reported overnight, over 1,200 remained isolating from the rest of Melbournians.
June 10
Thursday and the male partner of the couple from Melbourne had tested positive. The parents they had stayed with had tested negative as residents came out in droves to get tested across the Sunshine Coast.
Nine thousand and eight hundred tests had been carried out the day before.
Authorities were hopeful the pair had been near the end of their transmissible cycle. Hospitals and aged care facilities did not go into lockdown.
The couple had relocated to Queensland for the man’s work and a requirement from his new employer was for him and his wife to get tested so he would have COVID clearance to start work. That is when the positive tests for her came back.
As some restrictions were due to be lifted in Melbourne the next day, authorities changed their minds about mask wearing only indoors. Now masks would remain mandatory both outside and inside.
A 52 year old woman died from blood clotting in the brain after receiving a AstraZeneca. Two deaths having resulted from 3.6 million vaccines.
That actually meant in Australia there was so far a one in a 1.8 million chance of dying from blood clotting after having AstraZeneca.
But it also led to another unlikely statistic.
Two Australians had now died in 2021 from blood clotting following getting an AstraZeneca jab.
Only on Australian had died from COVID in 2021 so far.
However 909 had died in 2020 and I wondered of those 909 how many would take the AstraZeneca vaccine if they were still alive to have that opporunity?
June 11
Dr Sanjaya Senanayake was on the Channel Nine Australia’s morning show Today to discuss the COVID variants and their new names and how they compared to each other.
I was resistant to the renaming since it when someone mentioned Brazilian, UK and Indian strains I had a fairly good understanding of what that meant.
Alpha strain? Which one is that?
Of course in recent weeks all the talk is about the Delta strain so it’s easier to remember which one that is.
Still Dr Senanayake broke it down, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Kappa,
Both Delta and Kappa strains had originated in India but it was the Delta strain that was now most dominant in the UK and 50 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha strain.
The Alpha strain was the UK strain or in the UK what was known as the Kent strain.
The Infectious Disease Expert advised in the program the original Wuhan strain infected at a rate of 2.5 people, the Alpha or UK strain at 3.75 and now the Delta or Indian strain 5.5 people.
He advised UK data showed out of 12,000 Brits who got infected with the Delta variant only 1 per cent went to hospital but even more interestingly only 2 per cent of those 12,000 had been fully vaccinated He didn’t mention how many had received one jab but those kind of statistics suggested while the Delta variant or Indian strain was able to spread more quickly it was not necessarily more deadly than previous strains.
He advised research in the UK suggested risk of symptamatic disease was reduced by 60 per cent from two doses of AstraZeneca and 88 per cent from two doses Pfizer and that was before you looked at hospitalisations and deaths.
June 12
Saturday and a mass vaccination hub in Sunshine Coast aimed to 1,000 vaccine doses dispensed in a day given the recent scare from the relocating Melbourne couple.
No community cases were recorded in Queensland that day.
At the same time any Australians who had been fully vaccinated could now get a digital certificate of their full vaccination status through the federal government’s Medicare account.
For most that meant linking a Medicare account to the federal government’s myGov account and then downloading from there using a smartphone app.
For those who could not get the certificate online or via an app, their immunisation history could be requested from the vaccine provider or the Australian Immunisation Register.
For those unable to find the certificate online or via the app, an immunisation history statement can be requested from your vaccine provider or the Australian Immunisation Register.
The certificate will still be available for those who have opted out of My Health Record, as the Australian Immunisation Register is a separate database.
Talk turned to how such proof could be used down the line as a “vaccine passport” and not just for international travel but entry to public venues and the like – such arrangements had been made overseas already.
It was reported by Channel Nine News that from mid-July over 300 GPs across Australia would be able to dispense PFizer vaccines. That was expected to increase to 600 by the end of the month.
The Therapeutic Goods Administrator advised Pfizer doses could now be stored in a normal fridge for 31 days which would help a great deal in terms of logistics.
On the 13th of June 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 175,349,190 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 398,721.
There had been 3,795,727 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 10,250.
As of the 4th of July, 2021 there had been 2,988,941,529 vaccine doses dispensed across the globe.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 16,727 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45. There had been 165 deaths reported.
It appeared the recent wave of cases that started to rise in early March, 2021 was coming down in the country.
By the 24th of June, 2021 there will have been a measly 51,170 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Australia there had been 30,237 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eight. There had been 910 deaths.
By the 27th of June there would have been 7,500,700 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Malawi there had been 34,485 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 15. There had been 1,159 deaths with a daily increase of one.
As of the 4th of July, 2021 there had been 492,390 vaccine doses dispensed in the small landlocked Africa nation of 18.63 million people.
In Nepal there had been 608,472 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,694. There had been 8,412 deahts with a daily increase of 46.
There had been 3,232,604 vaccine doses dispensed in the country with 28.61 million people.
In Malaysia there had been 652,204 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,793. There had been 3,844 deaths with a daily increase of 76.
By the 24th of June there will have been 6,823,104 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Canada there had been 1,399,716 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,442. There had been 25,886 deaths with a daily increase of 13.
By the 1st of July, 2021 38,068,118 vaccine doses will have been dispensed in the country of 37.59 million people.
In Peru there had been 1,998,056 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,799.
The next day the country would reach the milestone of two million cases with 2,001,059.
There had been 188,100 deaths with a daily increase of 253.
Per capita Peru had the worst COVID death toll in the world.
As of the 1st of July there will have been 7,569,763 vaccine doses dispensed in the country of 32.51 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,558,498 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,550. There had been 127,896 deaths with a daily increase of twelve.
Cases of COVID were on the rise in the country.
By the 27th of June there will have been 77,038,257 vaccine doses dispensed in the island nation.
In India there had been 29,439,989 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 80,834. There had been 370,384 deaths with a daily increase of 3,303.
6,148 deaths had been reported on the 10th of June, 2021. A new daily record.
By the 27th of June, 2021 there will have been 323,663,297 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In the United States of America there had been 33,120,623 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 12,354. There had been 594,272 deaths with a daily increase of 394.
By the 1st of July there will have been 330,160,573 vaccine doses dispensed in the country of 328.2 million people.
394 daily deaths in America. Remember when that was shocking and now we think what an improvement such numbers it’s not even news.
But each of one of those 3,795,727 deaths matters and my heart goes out to the people who know those who are no longer with us.
Hopefully we’re getting there. I know it doesn’t feel like it sometimes but hopefully it is true and I choose to hope.
The day before 24,265 tests had been conducted in Victoria and in state-run sites there had been 17,719 vaccine doses administered.
That added to a total of 550,000 tests conducted in the state since the current outbreak had started two weeks earlier.
Two of the cases at Arcare were a 79 year old resident and an agency nurse who last worked a shift on Saturday. Everybody who worked a shift at Arcare on Saturday were being required to get tested and quarantine for 14 days.
One of the new cases was a cleaner at a construction site which had been listed as a contact stie, he along with 200 others had gotten tested as a result with him the testing positive.
For the lockdown the Victorian government announced a $30 million pakcage. 4.5 million for emergency food relief, grants for food hubs, income support of $800 per person to be administered through the Red Cross and $12 million for culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
In Queensland 63,272 vaccine doses had been dispensed in the past week with 17,032 of those over the weekend.
The state’s Health Minister Yvette D’Ath advised Queensland was getting 50,000 Pfizer doses now per week from the federal government allowing certainty with supply and distribution amongst community vaccine hubs.
AstraZeneca was left to be delivered by GPs to those 50 and over.
After the media beat-up from the previous week Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk aged 50 years and over advised she had received the Pfizer vaccine.
She advised she would have gotten the AstraZeneca jab but they were recommended to be taken twelve weeks apart and the Pfizer jab three weeks.
Premier Palaszczuk advised with a possible trip to meet the Olympic committee in Tokyo along iwth the Lord Mayor of Brisbane and the Australian Prime Minister for a Brisbane bid to host the games in 2032.
Dr Jeanette Young who was in late 50s but technically a health care worker had received AstraZeneca following health care workers getting Pfizer jabs as part of the 1A roll out.
So not only was Premier Palaszczuk getting the vaccine at a time that the popularity of the AstraZeneca vaccine was waning but she was doing it in order to be able to take an overseas trip as thousands of Australians struggled to travel internationally for work or seeing dying loved ones for example. It certainly was not a good look but a lot of that came down to timing.
No biggie, other Premiers weren’t rushing out, perhaps to not be seen to be using the privilege of their position but Premier Berejiklian was again showing confidence in a vaccine and as a leader taking care of her health so she could do her job.
Now a mere month later Premier Palaszczuk getting a Pfizer jab got some people’s knickers in a twist. I wasn’t one of them but once again timing is a delicate thing and simply put it wasn’t a good look.
As part of the 1B cohort the Premier and Chief Health Officer could have received their first dose in late March reported The Daily Mail.
In mid-April she got the flu jab and had to delay two weeks then got a tetanus shot after her dog bit her during a playfight.
Where she had previously selflessly wanted to wait her turn, whether her trip to Tokyo would ensure million of dollars in work and economic prosperity for the people of her state, if she did end up going. It didn’t matter. It just wasn’t a good look. Maybe two weeks earlier wouldn’t have mattered. But in politics timing is everything.
The Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was all for purpose built quarantine facilities in the country having included funding for it in last month’s budget reply speech.
There had been no breakouts from the Howard Springs Facility so far, there had been 21 or 22 from hotel quarantine in the past year.
Deputy opposition leader Richard Marles says there is just one purpose-built facility in Australia, Howard Springs in the Northern Territory, which unsurprisingly has no COVID-19 breakouts, while there has been 21 or 22 from hotels over the past year.
In good news Australia hit five million vaccine doses administered.
It had taken us 47 days to reach our first one million jabs, now 1 million had been dispensed in just the past nine days.
National Vaccine Operational Coordinator Commordore Eric Young advised 811,980 Pfizer doses would arrive onshore in the next couple of days and 230,000 AstraZeneca doses produced locally by CSL Limited would be batch released too.
The Royal Australian Navy officer advised the biggest week yet of the vaccine rollout would take place with 1.1 million doses distributed across two and a half thousand locations in Australia including an additional 100,000 vaccine doses for Victoria where Melbourne remained in lockdown.
Wednesday and six new confirmed cases in Melbourne led the lockdown to be extended in the Victorian capital for another seven days while some restrictions were lowered in regional Victoria.
This was the first time a snap lockdown in Australia had been extended.
There were some changes, from Friday people could travel up to 10 kilometres (up from five) from home and senior (Year 11 and 12) students were to return to school to learn too.
Certain labour jobs like landscaping or painting were also allowed.
There would be no ring of steel around the capital but restrictions would be different outside of Melbourne. To ensure people were staying put there would be roving mobile patrols from police and in open regional businesses would have to check ids of people entering. Hmmmm.
Across the state it would now be mandatory to sign in when entering any business using a QR Code including supermarktets which until recently had been a recommendation.
Regionally all students could return to school, there was no limit on where or why you could go except for travel to Melbourne – you need a permitted reason for that and restrictions applied to you while you were there.
Still outside of Melbourne you could have no visitors to your home beyond intimate partner or single bubble exceptions.
Outdoors gatherings could number ten, beauty and tattoo parlous could resume with mask on and religious gatherings could have up to people as could funerals. Weddings were limited to 10 people.
Outdoor pools, drive-ins, outdoor entertainment venues were capped at a certain capacity or no more than 50 people.
209 million dollars was going to support Victorian businesses.
Ms Scott was happy for 16-39 year olds to attend but advised they would not have priority.
“I’m over having the COVID test. It would be nice to actually have the needle done and not have to be panicky every time we cough or something. I was only actually unwell just last week … and it made me worried because I’m with people who don’t have very good immunity. Someone’s got to take my shift and the families of the people we’re caring for, they get worried that we’ve been around their loved one and they haven’t been done… It’s hard,” said disability support worker Gabrielle Bright.
Two cases of the new Delta strain B1617.2 which had been discovered in India and was also now making its presence known in northern England were announced in the cluster of Melbourne cases.
On Sunday, June 6, 2021 Sunday the World Health Organisation reported there had been 172,677,879 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 394,544.
There had been 3,721,209 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 9,483.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 16,374 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 47. There had been 164 deaths. As of the 6th of June, 2021 there had been 38,176 vaccine doses administered in the country.
In Australia there had been 30,158 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eight. There had been 910 deaths. As of the 6th of June, 2021 there had been 5,931,245 vaccine doses administered in the country of 25.36 million people.
In Malta there had been 30,568 confirmed cases with a daily increase of nine. There had been 419 deaths. By the 12th of June, 2021 there had been 557,758 vaccine doses administered in the island nation that has a population 441,543 people.
In Venezuela there had been 239,252 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,239. There had been 2,698 deaths with a daily increase of nine. By the 17th of June, 2021 there will have been 1,302,992 vaccine doses administered in the country of 28.52 million people.
In Tunisia there had been 353,782 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,479. There had been 12,948 deaths with a daily increase of 46. By the 19th of June, 2021 there wil have been 1,554,145 vaccine doses administered in the African country of 11.69 milion people.
In Malaysia there had been 610,574 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,452. There had been 3,291 deaths with a daily increase of 109.
As of the 6th of June, 2021 there had been 3,330,436 vaccine doses administered in the country with a population of 31.95 million people.
In Canada there had been 1,389,508 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,063. There had been 25,679 deaths with a daily increase of 35.
By the 17th of June there will have been 30,885,092 vaccine doses administered in a country of 37.59 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,511,673 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,651. There had been 127,836 deaths with a daily increase of 13.
June 2nd no new deaths had been recorded in the country.
July 31, 2020 had been the last day no new daily deaths had been recorded in the country.
On the 17th of June, 2021 there had been 71,672,208 vaccine doses administered in the country of 66.65 million people.
In India there had been 28,809,339 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 114,460.
There had been 346,759 deaths with a daily increase of 2,677.
By the 14th of June, 2021 there would have been 261,740,273 vaccine doses administered in the country.
In the United States of America there had been 33,015,604 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 17,729. There had been 591,276 deaths with a daily increase of 583. New daily cases were getting back to the same level as May 2020.
By the 17th of June, 2021 there will have been 317,983,185 vaccine doses administered in the country of 328.2 million people.
Now for a good news story, ABC News interviewed President of the Sikh Volunteers Australia, Jaswinder Singh, whose organisation helped out during the terrible bushfires of 2019-20 and the Melbourne lockdown last year. They were back providing food to people during this lockdown.
“I have lost my father in India. [I] was not able to attend the funeral because of the lockdown restriction. A lot of other community members I have seen in the same boat. Times are hard but only by giving in to others the support and encouragement gives hope for everyone.”
Monday, a new week and there were 11 new cases in locked down Melbourne.
There was an indication in the news coverage that the lockdown would be extended.
Raising concerns was three new cases linked to aged care where cases had led to most of Australia’s deaths from COVID in 2020, in particular in Victoria during their series of lockdowns.
One was a Arcare Aged Care Worker and the son of the worker.
The other a 99 year old! Arcare Aged Care female resident who was asymptomatic but had been transferred to hospital. She had previously received her first doze of a COVID vaccine.
Also positive was an unvaccinated Arcare worker who had also worked at a Blue Cross Nursing home last week as well.
Up until Thursday staff in aged care were allowed to work across facilities until the lockdown took effect.
All remaining Arcare staff and residents were now going to be offered the Pfizer vaccine even though AstraZeneca was seen as the primary one to dispense to over 50 year olds.
The unvaccinated staff member had been on leave three weeks earlier when some residents had been vaccinated and left over doses were given to staff it was reported by Channel 9.
655 aged care residents died in Victoria last year from COVID last year. So far there have only been 910 deaths from COVID in Australia so far.
Both the Blue Cross residency and the Arcare residency were now in lockdown with a staff member of the Blue Cross facility having tested positive.
Pfizer doses were rushed to the Arcare facility the same day to offer to staff and residents either their first or second doses of the vaccine
It turned out one of the protestors in Melbourne over the weekend who breathed on media and was carted off by Police worked in aged care.
The situation amplified the fact that now in the fourth month of vaccines rolling out in Australia we still didn’t have all aged care residents and those with disabilities and attending staff vaccinated.
Partly that was because the vaccine was not mandatory for either those vulnerble citizens or those who took care of them.
Part of it was because it was complicated to deliver the vaccine to them.
Part of it was supply had been slow and state and federal authorities had chosen to race to get the vaccine out to as many of the general public that they could.
It did mean though that those who are often forgotten because they don’t have as loud a voice were being left behind in this race.
There was talk of maybe making COVID vaccinations mandatory for Aged Care Staff and as the ABC reported there was precedent of making those who worked in hotel quarantine get vaccinated in order to work.
June 01
Tuesday.
Close to 42,699 Victorians got tested in the past 24 hours as the cluster of cases grew to 54 iwth three new cases.
There were thankfully no new cases in aged care.
Meanwhile there was concern over how the virus was currently spreading. One of the day’s four new cases in VIctoria was thorugh fleeting contact and one new cases had never been to any of the contract tracing sites.
Speaking of the contract tracing sites there were plenty of them in Melbourne.
The state’s mass vaccination sites were going to “roll-out the red carpet” to aged care workers.
It was known that nine per cent of them had been fully vaccinated so far while on the job!
But the full numbers from them attending their own GP, etc was unknown.
On the ABC’s 7:30 program Professor Katy Eager from the University of Wollongong told that aged care workers were to their own devices to get vaccinated leaving them out of 1A frontline workers cohort.
Walk ins were to have a priority lane and go the front of the queue to get vaccinated from the 2nd of June through to Sunday the 6th at ten mass vaccination sites across Victoria, four in Melbourne and the rest in towns like Ballarat, Bendigo, Wodonga and Traralgon.
The Victorian government was also setting up nine disability vaccination centres for those with disabilities to get vaccinated.
It was reported just 335 people with disabilities in residential care out of 22,000 had been fully vaccinated.
Channel 9 News reported that 38,912 , 86% of aged are residents in Victoria have received one vaccine dose. Around half at 25,319 had received one dose.
In Australia 72,707 aged care workers have had either one or two jabs out of a workforce totalling 366,00.
The Victorian government wouldn’t be drawn on whether the lockdown would be exended or if there would be one set of rules for Regional Victoria and one for the capital Melbourne.
The World Health Organisation also announced they would now call strains after the Greek alphabet rather than from the country it originated from.
A sentiment I understand but one that I think will just cause confusion at a time when clarity is required. The B.1.1.7 mutation we knew as the UK strain would now be referred to as the Alpha variant, the B.1.315 mutation we know as the South African strain would now be referred to as the Beta variant, the P.1 mutation we knew as the Brazilian variant would now be referred to as the Gamma variant and the B.1.617.2 mutation known as the Indian variant would now be referred to as the Delta variant.
We’ll see how that works out.
The ABC aslo reported on the lockdown in Malaysia, only essential businesses were open, schools had moved to online learning and people could only move in a ten kilometre radius from their home. Of note you could exercise by jogging but not cycling. Malaysia’s hospitals were filling up.Ministers and Deputy Ministers were giving up their salary for three months to fund government health initiative. projects. There was also a 12.5 billion stimulus package.
A exhibition building in Kuala Lumpur had been converted into a mass vaccination site. mass immunisation centre.
On the 1st of June, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in Malaysia there had been 572,357 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,824. There had been 2,796 deaths with a daily increase of 67.
The country had reached a new daily record of confirmed cases May 30 with 9,020.
On June 3rd, 126 daily deaths would be a new daily record in that figure.
Friday and the Federal government was copping heat for what was happening in Victoria.
There were four new cases in Melbourne taking the current Whittlesea cluster and 15,000 close contacts identified. It was also pointed out that some of these venues had more people reported at them then QR code recording had indicated. Sadly this meant people were either failing or choosing not to log in when they arrived at the venues and this complicated contract tracing now.
Wage subsidies were being looked at for affected businesses but nothing definitive was offerred yet.
Some of these cases had been symptomatic for days before getting tested in what cold and flu season.
People were definitely getting tested now, a new record of 47,462 tests had been carried out in one day as well as a new state record 17,223 vaccinations in one day.
While the federal government had sent 160 Australian Defence Force members to Victoria to assist they were copping heat for their primary responsibility in the vacccine roll out.
As Australia reached 4,031,539 vaccine doses administered (close to two months after we initially planned to hit that number), half a million Australians having been fully vaccinated and a record 124,000 jabs in a day the media reported on the fact that those in aged care and disability were not yet all vaccinated.
Ten million doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer had been delivered in the country.
A quarter of those were being held in reserve for second doses and the rest had been distrubuted to the states according to Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Yet only 6,000 out of 26,000 Australians who lived in disability care had received a vaccine.
As Pfizer was made available to more people in Australia there was also going to be less than 200,000 doses of the vaccine in June than there had been in May.
True story.
Meanwhile my older sister who lived in disability care and was under 50 well she wasn’t vaccinated. Her story one of thousands in this country.
Then there was the fact that there were aged care homes staff and residents yet to receive one jab.
At the five minute mark of the below report you will see a little bit covered about Sikh Volunteers Australia who are delivering food to the needy during lockdown when demand increases. Good people doing good deeds. Legends!
The lockdown in Victoria prompted more people to get vaccinated in Queensland with the daily dose up by 7,000 in the past 24 hours including Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath.
So what was the total, well that was hard to get from official sources but COVIDLIVE.COM.AU reported 771,016 vaccine doses had been administered in the state with 88,774 Queenslanders apparently fully vaccinated. The population of Queensland was 5,185 million.
And as Channel 7 News reported only 25 Queenslanders who lived in disability residential care had been vaccinated.
Twenty five.
That wasn’t even one a day for how long we had been vaccinating in the state.
That wasn’t…
That was…
That…
Th..
….
That wasn’t good enough. Not one little bit.
Not now.
Not ever.
May 29
Saturday and there were five new cases in lockdown Victoria.
There was also protest against the lockdown in Melbourne but the police were ready for them.
Fourteen people were arrested and 55 were fined.
May 30
On the 30th of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 169,631,767 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 480,388.
There had been 3,646,501 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 11,838.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 15,901 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 53. There had been 162 deaths.
By June 6, 2021 there will have been 38,176 vaccine doses administered in the country.
A small drop in the ocean for a country with a population of 8.776 million people.
News in Australia had switched to the crisis in India, then the Victorian lockdown but the country of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels still needed us.
In Australia there had been 30,083 confirmed cases with a daily increase of ten. There had been 910 deaths.
By the 6th of June, 2021 there will have been 5,203,977 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
in Kenya there had been 170,485 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 444. There had been 3,141 deaths with a daily increase of 17. The country was coming down from a recent wave.
By the 9th of June, 2021 there will have been 1,030,445 vaccine doses dispensed in the country. Kenya had a population of 52.57 million people.
In Malaysia there had been 558,534 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 9,020. The highest daily increase of cases in the country ever. There had been 2,650 deaths with a daily increase of 98.
On June the 3rd, 126 deaths reported in one day would set a new daily record for that statistic.
By the 6th of June, 2021 there will have been 3,330,436 vaccine doses dispensed in the country. Malaysia had a population of 31.95 million people.
In Canada there had been 1,374,275 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,202. There had been 25,440 deaths with a daily increase of 29.
By the 3rd of June there will have been 25,226,671 vaccine doses dispensed in Canada which had a population of 37.59 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,480,949 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,240. There had been 127,775 deaths with a daily increase of seven. On June 2nd no deaths from COVID would be recorded for that day.
By the 7th of June, 2021 there will have been 68,381,870 vaccine doses dispensed in the country with a population 66.65 milion people.
In Russia there had been 5,063,442 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 9,694. There had been 121,162 deaths with a daily increase of 355.
By the 8th of June, 2021 there will have been 30,708,050 vaccine doses administered in the country with a population of 144.4 million people.
In Turkey there had been 5,235,978 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,656. There had been 47,271 deaths with a daily increase of 137.
By the 8th of June, 2021 there will have been 30,857,320 vaccine doses administered in the country of over 84 million people.
In India there had been 27,894,800 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 165,553!
There had been 325,972 deaths recorded with a daily increase of 3,460.
By the 7th of June, 2021 there will have been 238,840,635 vaccine doses administered in the country.
In the United States of America there had been 32,916,501 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 25,091. The kind of daily increases that had been seen during a downturn of COVID in May 2020.
There had been 588,292 deaths with a daily increase of 743.
By the 3rd of June, 2021 there will have been 301,161,088 vaccine doses administered in the country of 328.2 million people.
There were 11 new cases overnight in Victoria prompted the state to go into a seven day lockdown.
A cluster linked to the Wollett man who had quaratined in South Australia and then tested postive now stood at 26 cases out of 34 active ones in Victoria.
There were five reasons why people could leave home during the lockdown.
Shopping for food, travel to work, medical care and caregiving, exercise around your local area for two hours AND… getting vaccinated.
At the same time the state government announced from tomorrow anyone over 40 would be elligble to get vaccinated leading the VIctorian vaccine hotline to crash due to the flurry of calls. 77,000 calls were received in a 15 minute window.
With 40-49s able to apply to get vaccinated, half the population of Victoria could arrange to get vaccinted.
Meanwhile those with disabilities and some in aged care remained unvaccinated.
Maybe a cheap shot at the federal government as he as state leader carried out what would be an unpopular action.
On Tuesday the Victorian government at state facilities had dispensed 16,000 vaccinations and on Wednesday they had carried out 12,677. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton advised Victoria could do 30,000 a day and with proper supply they could reach 100,000 a day.
Channel 9 News reported that 9 aged care facilities in the state had yet to receive one single dose in the fourth month of the vaccine roll-out in Australia. Dr Norman Swan speaking on the ABC’s 7:30 program said it was 29 aged care facilities.
Schools would switch to remote learning while childcare and kindergartens remained open.
Restaurants and cafes were back to only take-away.
Public gatherings were out as were private gatherings but intimate partners could see each other and singles could have one visitor. Shopping and exercise should be within a five kilometre radius of home.
Only 10 people were permitted at funerals and weddings were only allowed under exception circumstances.
40,411 tests had been carried out in the past 24 hours and there were 21 new testing sites set up with over 200 operating across the state as queues backed up into the night and people had to be turned away.
The Acting Premier advised there were 150 exposure sites to be listed and there had been 10,000 close contacts following contract tracing.
From 1am tomorrow Queensland would be shut to Victorians.
From 4pm today anybody entering New South Wales from Victoria had to observe the same lockdown rules while staying in New South Wales.
South Australia had closed the border to their Eastern neighbour at 6pm Wednesday night.
The only people allowed into SA from the affected area from that point on are essential travellers and returning South Australians, who will need to quarantine for 14 days.
People are unable to enter Tasmania if they have been in Victoria in the past 14 days.
Western Australia had closed the border to Victoria too.
From midnight Thursday travellers from Victoria will be banned from entering the Australian Capital Territory unless they have an exemption.
ACT residents who leave Victoria to come home after that time can enter but must follow stay at home requirements until the 3rd of June when the lockdown was scheduled to end in Victoria.
On the other side fo the world and a Wednesday, Dominic Cummings the former Chief Advisor to the Prime Minister of Great Britain Boris Johnson gave testimony at a parliamentary inquiry about the handling of the COVID pandemic.
What was said in those seven hours if proven true was pretty damning.
What was claimed or confirmed Cummings mostly related to behind closed door meetings and briefings where debate can be debated and remarks can be flip.
But still…
Johnson compared COVID to swine flu and suggested he be injected live on television with it to prove it wasn’t dangerous.
Was distracted about developments in Italy with his divorce and announcement of his partner’s pregnancy.
A senior civil servant likened COVID-19 to chicken pox and floated mass infection parties to build herd immunity.
Johnson quipped COVID was only killing over 80s.
Expressed regret over the first lockdown and said he would rather see the bodies pile in their thousands than order a second lockdown.
When asked if Johnson was fit to hold office, the man who was a key part of the team that saw him win power replied “No.”
Cummings was even harder on Health Secretary Matt Hancock who he said had told cabinet members that people being transferred from hospitals to nursing home were being tested prior to being transported but it didn’t happen.
Cummings advised the Prime Minister to get rid of Hancock otherwise we are going to kill people but he didn’t. Perhaps for political reasons.
In his testimony Cummings relayed two central points about the government initial plan – that herd immunity through spread was a key strategy and that the British public wouldn’t stand for lockdowns.
Cummings left government last year during a power struggle and also created controversy around himself when he seemingly broke lockdown rules last year when travelling from London to northern England while he had COVID!
What I find remarkable in this day and age with the news is how we just don’t know the answer for things for certain.
From my limited perspective some of the actions taken by the UK government suggest a lack of awareness of the threat during this and later periods.
A priority on the economy over lives.
Herd immunity was even evoked by Johnson in some early press conferences. In comparison to other European countries the UK moved slower and less stridently on a consistent basis.
What Cummings has testified might be irrelevant, there is enough in confirmed actions to question.
The World Health Organisation reported on the 27th of May, 2021 in the United Kingdom there have been 4,470,301 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,987.
There had been 127,748 deaths with a daily increase of nine.
As of 25 May 2021, the World Health Organisation reported a total of 1,545,967,545 vaccine doses have been administered around the world. The global population was 7.674 billion people.
The second repatriation out of India following the lifting of the travel ban of May 15 touched down in Darwin.
All 165 scheduled passengers had passed their tests and were able to fly back.
The testing company previously used by Qantas had been replaced after more than a dozen of the passengers from the previous flight who had tested positive had subsequently tested negative They were now being prirotised for getting a return flgiht.
There were eight repatriation flights scheduled for the following fortnight.
Tuesday and there is an increasing outbreak of cases in Melbourne who had suffered the most in 2020 with lockdowns, case numbers and aged care deaths.
There were five new daily cases and genomic testing linked it to the man who had done time in hotel quarantine in Adelaide and then become positive in Melbourne.
New restrictions or old restrictions returned to the Victorian capital.
Masks were to be worn inside, there was a limit of five people at home gatherings and public gatherings were restricted to 30 people.
New Zealand hit pause on the travel button with Victoria.
China released a video for their vaccine roll-out and announced an intention to administer up to 20 million doses a day.
A report from the ABC showed people were not going back to the office full time.
The ABC took stats from Australia Talks data that showed those working from home full time had shifted from four per cent to 25 per cent during the height of the pandemic here and was now currently at 12 per cent.
It appeared going forward a lot of people were keen to have a mix of working from home and in the office. Cutting out their commute saved them money and time and they found they were connected and present with their families.
Of course this was dependent on what your home life was, what your set-up at home was and what you did for a living.
I personally loved going into the office.
However I was certain the genie was out of the bottle and the stats reflected this.
Those who did 0 hours working from home had shifted from 49 per cent pre-pandemic to now 37 per cent.
May 26
Wednesday and the COVID cluster in Melbourne grew to 15 people with six new cases in the community.
‘And as you can imagine, a shopping centre could have captured a broader group of people.’
The government to the north of Victoria was falling over itself to not close to their neighbour but yeah but nah but yeah but nah but.
Those who had been in Greater Melbourne or Bendigo since May 12 were advised to not visit residential aged care or health care facilities unless it was to seek treatment or for compassionate reasons.
People who had been in Melbourne’s far north well limit your attendance at locations at pubs, and clubs, and gyms and
Yeah large family gatherings
But you know you can still see your family and
Look avoid crowded indoor settings
But you know we won’t make you quarantine at home like those mongrel Queenslanders!
But you know… speaking of your house… do you like your house yeah… houses are great!
I mean if you like your house so much that you spend the new few days there then that’s probably for the best.
And if you got out and you can go out but like when you’re out………………….
Don’t go anywhere where there’s like ooooohh…lots of people
Or old people
Or sick people
Or people with disabilities
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand if you do….
Like could you wear a mask?
Nobdoy else will be wearing a mask and we’re certainly not going to mandate you wear a mask
Just like we’re not going to make you quarantine
Because there is no need to do any of that and we wouldn’t do that to you!
But if you could kind of do all of that then that’s probably for the best but we’re not going to do that because we’re not like the Queensland and WA governments.
On Tuesday there had been 16,698 tests carried out in the state.
The same day 13,200 vaccine doses were dispensed by New South Wales Health.
So far in NSW, 1,142,002 doses had been dispensed, 371,117 by NSW Health and 770,885 by GPs and the Commonwealth.
NSW Health was stepping ahead of the national rollout getting over 40s to regsiter interest getting Pfizer jabs at their Sydney Olympic Park clinic.
There was still work to be done in Phase 1A and 1B which included front line health care workers, those who worked in quarantine or border control and their household contacts, thsoe with underlying health conditions aor disability.
Then there were the over 50s to get AstraZeneca.
The 40-49s who had registered for Pfizer were starting to get contacted.
In the wake of my sister and her husband finally getting the jab it was timely to think of where vaccinations were in the UK.
More than 37 million Britons had received at least one vaccine dose.
The initial roll-out targeted 32 million people who were either aged over 50, or residents and workers in aged care, or frontline health care workers, or those with underlying health problems and unpaid carers.
People who fell under those categories had accounted for 99% of all COVID deaths in the UK and the government had aimed to have offered anyone in that group at least their first jab by the 15th of April.
Now the rollout had expanded to get 21 million Britons aged 20 to 49 years old to receive their first jab by mid-July.
The thirty seven million equated to 70% of the adult population.
More than 21 million had their second dose.
There was a move to crank up second doses to over 50s in the wake of the new Indian variant.
In mid-march 500,000 first doses were administered per day.
Now first doses averaged 190,000 per day and 340,000 second doses were being administered on average.
A jab manufactured by US firm Novavax will be made in Stockton-on-Tees in north-east England, while another by French company Valneva will be made in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland.
On Friday here in Australia there was plenty of COVID news to cover.
Some continued coverage in the need to get more people with disabilities vaccinated.
There was talk of putting blood clot cases into perspective from COVID restrictions.
There was talk of the need to get overseas students able to study at Universities in Australia.
Gauri Gupta, sister of Govind Kant’s who passed away in India, spoke to 7:30 about her loss.
There was talk of getting MRNA production up in Australia in the next two years with the federal government putting a callout for companies to make applications.
Recently a 53 year old South Australian man received a jab on the 4th of May and ended up in hospital May 18 with severe abdominal pain.
There was also the 18 year old nurse in Queensland, a 57 year old woman in and a 79 year old man both from Victoria.
Over 230 volunteers were allowed back into the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne including ‘The Splint Ladies‘ who have each been volunteering at the hosptial for three decades.
It was also reported that earlier in the week the Chinese made COVID vaccine Sinopharm was dispensed in the Solomon Islands making it the first Pacific Islander nation to receive the vaccine. Australia had also pledged to deliver 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca to the islands.
India appeared to be coming off the peak of its largest and most devasting wave. The virus was spreading more rurally sadly in the country which would have consequences since there were less resources in those places.
In neighbouring Nepal it was reported 50 per cent of COVID tests returned positive on a daily basis, sometimes higher. The number of hospitalisations had increased and beds and oxygen were in short supply.
Following a petition that I coincidentally signed urging the Australian government to help, they announced seven million dollars of support would be sent.
The World Health Organisation reported on the 21st of May, 2021 in Nepal there had been 488,645 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,227. There had been 5,847 deaths with a daily increase of 190.
But for some none of that was the big news of the day.
Oh no.
The big news for them was that Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had not yet had her COVID vaccine.
And neither had the Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young.
With so much coverage about blood clots people argued leaders taking the jab could build confidence.
They argued this struck the wrong tone, gave the wrong message.
Dr Young as a health care professional was waiting to get Pfizer and the Premier merely said she was waiting to do it after her flu shot which she had not yet had – halfway through Autumn.
At work we had taken our flu shots in early April but another school of thought was workplaces should hold off giving flu shots so early in the season.
In the past 24 hours in Australia 92,000 doses had been administered in the country.
The next day there was continued back and forth reported between Premier Palaszczuk and Prime Minister Morrison about the potential Wellcamp Airport quarantine facility. No real movement there.
On the ABC their program The Vaccine covered the latest on the vaccine roll-out in Australia and the latest news coming out of India.
Health Minister Greg Hunt’s words at a press conference were covered as unhelpful as the main vaccine on offer in Australia remained the AstraZeneca vaccine which had links to very rare cases of blood clotting.
You could argue it was simply acknowledge the fact that some people were going to hold out for Pfizer regardless of their age but there was a need to encourage people to get vaccinated as soon as they could.
Also has history had shown, we couldn’t assume that vaccine doses would arrive as we hoped they would at the end of the year in the quantities expected. There was a winter to contend with in between too.
Casey Briggs reported there had been 3.47 million vaccine doses dispensed in the country with over 100,000 doses dispensed.
The seven day average was just under 70,000 a day.
it was also reported cases were back on the rise in Brazil and surging in many South East Asian nations like Thailand and Malaysia.
Physician and journalist Dr Norman Swan on the program spoke about vaccine hesitancy and the roll-out in Australia in general.
He advised waiting for Pfizer a choice someone could make but that given the leaks from hotel quarantine already and the rising number of infectious cases now was not the time to wait to get vaccinated.
The latest 617 Indian variant 617 was almost 40 more infectious than the British variant.
The R number is the number of people that one infected person will pass the virus on to on average.
The original Wuhan variant that swept the world had an R number of of 2.4
The UK strain that originated in Kent had an R number of 4.5.
It was estimated the Indian variant’s R number was at least 6 maybe even as high as 8 and could prove a little vaccine resistant.
He also reminded that risk of death from COVID goes up and the risk of blood clotting from AstraZeneca goes down.
He also spoke of how initial clinical trials presented the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine with an efficacy rate of 62 per cent.
SInce those trials, AstraZeneca was been dispensed twelve weeks apart with better results and both AstraZeneca and Pfizer seemed to give almost 100 per cent chance of avoiding hospitalisation from COVID. The current efficacy rate in the real world from infection was about 85 per cent with AstraZeneca and 95 per cent with Pfizer. A significantly smaller gap.
Infectious disesases expert Associate Professor Sanajaya Senanayake from Australian National University also joined the program.
Which I understood what I meant but at the same time the number of vaccines being dispensed was being reported and also the reality of the statistical likelihood was also being covered but of course fear doesn’t make you act sensibly.
There was so much talk about the need for more marketing, the fear of blood clots and while I understand all of that is relevant.
I have to say the most important thing was getting our most vulnerable and our most keen vaccinated. That came down to logistics and that came down to organising.
My older sister in disability care had still not been vaccinated.
Our aged care residents and staff had still not all been vaccinated.
Plenty of young people were keen do the smart thing and get vaccinated.
Worry about them.
They don’t need an ad to convince them and they know what’s at stake.
Sunday and on the 23rd of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 166054891 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 590064.
There had been 3564623 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 11865.
In the Solomons Islands there had been 23 cases recorded and zero deaths. As of the 13th of May it was reported 11,536 vaccine doses had been administered.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 15,187 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 54.
There had been 156 deaths with a daily increase of two.
More had to be done.
There had been 13 new daily deaths recorded on the 20th of May, a record for the country.
More had to be done.
As of the 13th of May there had been 11,537 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Australia there had been 30,004 confirmed cases with a daily increase four. There had been 910 deaths.
As of the 27th of April, there had been 3,089,183 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Nepal there had been 505,643 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,591. There had been 6,153 deaths with a daily increase of 129.
By the 29th of May there would have been 2,802,596 vaccine doses administered in the country with a population of 28.61 million people.
In Malaysia there had been 505,115 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,320. There had been 2,199 deaths with a daily increase of 50.
As of the 16th of May, there had been 1,914,554 vaccine doses administered in the country with a 31.95 million people.
In Canada there had been 1,352,121 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,676. There had been 25162 deaths with a daily increase of 51.
The country had reached the milestone of 25,000 dead from COVID on the 20th of May with 25,018 and a daily increase of 35.
The country was coming off its most recent and largest wave of COVID with the percentage of its population much higher than it had been only a few weeks earlier.
By the 27th of May there would be 22,622,529 vaccine doses dispensed in Canada which had a population of 37.59 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,460,450 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,523. There had been 127,716 deaths with a daily increase of six.
By the 31st of May the UK had dispensed 64,923,228 vaccine doses amongst a population of 66.65 million people.
In France there had been 5,497,073 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 11,821. There had been 107,732 deaths with a daily increase of 75.
By the 29th of May there would have been 36,487,886 vaccine doses dispensed in a country with 67.06 million people.
In India there had been 26,530,132 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 240,842. There had been 209,266 deaths with a daily increase of 3,741.
The next day India would reach the milestone of over 300,000 COVID deaths with 303,720 and a daily increase of 4,454.
While the country was coming down from its most devastating wave with reported case numbers there had been 4,529 deaths reported four days earlier on the 19th of May. The highest number of daily deaths from COVID in the country ever.
By the end of the month on the 31st of May, there would have been 218,358,591 vaccine doses dispensed in India.
In Brazil there had been 15,970,949 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 76,855. There had been 446,309 deaths with a daily increase of 2,215.
In Brazil the highest number of daily deaths had been 4,249 reported on the 10th of April, 2021.
By the 27th of May there would have been 60,017,445 vaccine doses dispensed in a country with 211 million people.
In the United States of America there had been 32,762,914 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 27,921. There had been 583,696 deaths with a daily increase of 743.
By the 27th of May there would been 294,270,594 vaccine doses dispensed in a country with 328.2 million people.
There was news that Pfizer jabs could be more easily dispersed here in Australia. Currently Pfizer can be stored for up to five days in a regular fridge but now following research The Therapeutic Goods Administration were looking to approve normal fridge storage times be extende up to 31 days.
3,278,854 vaccines doses had been administered in Australia but 1.5 million doses were currently in storage so dispersal could be helped.
There was also talk in the media for the need for a bigger flashier advertising campaign for vaccination. Either the song and dance numbers from Asia or the charm of New Zealand’s relaxed demeanour or the starpower fo Sir Michael Caine and Sir Elton John in the UK or Dolly Parton in the U.S.
Advertising Guru Simon Reynolds who created the chilling Grim Reaper HIV advertisements from the 1980s wasn’t pulling any punches thirty years on. His advice, cut through apathy with fear because there is little doubt there virus is something to be afraid of.
With over 3 million dead and 164 million infected I am inclined to agree.
When asked if his advice was to use fear again he replied, “Well use reality.”
Pfizer drugs could be stored in a regular fridge from the now with fridge storage times going from 5 to 31 days which could prove a major development.
With the end of Jobkeeper in Australia, the unemployment rate had gone from 5.7 per cent in March to 5.5 per cent in April.
Thirty thousand and six hundred jobs had been lost in the month but the people looking for work also decreased from 66.3% to 66.0%.
Basically there were less people working and less people looking for work too.
Unemployment was effectively where it was pre-COVID in Australia which was kind of miraculous but that wasn’t too say there were people who had lost work or lost their business.
Eunice Wang had gone from a part time job in the tourism industry to casaul work in retail. Less hours, less security and less money but she was all smiles.
Heroes come in all forms.
Her resilience just one more example of what we need to support and what we need to find within ourselves.
Others like Jimmy and James Gantidis of the struggling to survive Melbourne River Cruises.
The Wall Street Journal had also covered the COVID crisis in India with an informative concise video.
On the 20th fo May, it advised people aged 34 and over could book to get their first vaccine dose. In Scotland it was anyone over 30 and in some parts of Glasgow it was anyone over 18. The Welsh were the same as Glaswegians and in Northern Ireland people 25 and up could get vaccinated. There was priority for some to get second doses too in England where the Indian variant was taking off.
With the priority on those age groups that meant those who wanted to get vaccinated in older age brackets should have mostly already done so. Also the bulk of frontline health and social care workers, clinically extremely vulnerable people and those with underlying health problems aged over 16 had also been prioritised.
Those who had their first done should have received their second dose within twelve weeks of the first. There was a shift too for those over 50 with health conditions to get their second dose now within eight weeks of the first jab.
The three vaccines of choice in the UK remained the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine, the Oxford-AstraZenea and Moderna.
At the end of March 20 million doses of AstraZeneca had been administered with 79 cases of blood clots resulting in 19 deaths. A one in million chance fo dying. Out of those nearly two of the cases had been women, the people who died were 18 to 79 years old with three of them under 30.
That decision was taken as the numbers racked up to 242 clotting cases and 49 deaths from 28.5 million doses administered.
The UK’s medicines safety regulator says there have been 242 clotting cases and 49 deaths, with 28.5 million doses of the vaccine administered.
With thoses stats the risk of death from a blood clot was two in a million chance for people over 40 and four in a million chance for those over 30.
The risk of a clot is roughly one in 100,000 for people in their 40s, but rises to one in 60,000 for people in their 30s. Two in a million people in their 40s died rising to four per million people in their 30s.
Official guidance currently was to have people get the same vaccine for both doses. It was believed teh three vaccines currently being used in the UK would prevent people becoming seriously ill or dying even against variants.
It appeared the Indian variant spread more easily.
Companies were working to have booster jabs ready to counter variants by autumn in the northern hemisphere.
The Cov-Boost study will recruit 3,000 people of all ages to test whether re-vaccinating some people in the autumn is necessary.
The UK had on order eight different vaccines and 517 million doses.
Following on from 40 million Pfizer doses initially there were now at least 60 million Pfizer booster jabs to come in the northern autumn.
In the UK the vaccine was being offered to pregnant women.
For the moment Pfizer was approved for use in over 16 year olds and AstraZeneca and Pfizer over 18s with of course that major caveat regarding AstraZeneca.
In Canada and the U.S. Pfizer was approved for use with teenagers.
No decision has been made on whether teenagers or younger children will be offered a vaccine in the UK.
Regardless further facilities like the one at Howard Springs would be useful for building capacity for taking on returned travellers and avoiding breakouts in capital cities.
Sydney Morning Herald and The Age ran a poll and reported that one in three Australians who had not been vaccinated were hesitant to get vaccinated.
The Prime Minister spun it into a postive about 70 per cent who wanted to get the jab.
There was an opening and her husband walked up the road and got vaccinated as well.
WIth cases already occuring at their school again this was welcome news even if it would take time for the full protection offered by their Pfizer shot to take full effect.
The good news didn’t stop there, family over in Canada had also got vaccinated with Moderna.
News of people I cared about abroad getting vaccinated was a welcome relief and couldn’t have come soon enough.
In England another step was made in the lowering of restrictions.
Britons could now go abroad to Portugal and a few other limited countries.
Hospitality and tourism were back in business.
Cinemas, restaurants, museusm and casinos as well as The London Eye were all open for business giving close to 1 million people a change to go back to work.
Theatre was back – The West End was open for the first time in 14 months.
Cases of the Indian variant in the country had double in the past 4 days reported Channel 9 News.
It was interesting to watch here in Australia. Britain had suffered more in case numbers and deaths than here in Australia and as a result had endured a more lengthy and stringent lockdown.
But international travel was still limited in Australia and while our theatres had opened up again without restrictions the number of cases were significantly less at the point those decisions were made then was the case currently in Great Britain.
It seemed and I would appreciate any commentary from my fellow British bloggers, that Britons had endured something and were enthuasiastic about their new freedom.
If there was a risk to enjoying it they felt they had endured enough to consider taking that risk. Maybe also an awareness that restictions could be lowered again.
Happy to hear your thoughts.
In the news was discussion about Queensland not having a mass vaccination hub with the Queensland Premier arguing the population was more decentralised. In the past 24 hours New South Wales and Victoria had each dispensed over 11,000 vaccine doses. Queensland and Western Australia had both been under three thousand each.
There was talk of a vaccine passport again, this time to allow more free travel between states during lockdowns for those who had been vaccinated.
An 18 year old nursing student had been hospitalised with blood clots three weeks after receiving an AstraZeneca jab. It took five hospital visits to get properly diagnosed and it properly left her shaken.
Also in the news 47 year old Sydney father Govind Kant had passed away. A son who went back to his bury his mother in India, he was then unable to get a flight back before getting COVID. He recovered from the virus but his lungs were too damaged and he passed away. In the space of six weeks his family had lost a mother, a father and their brother.
I have talked previously about the fact that many people with disabilities were being left behind in the vaccine roll-out.
Now finally there was some media coverage thanks to one angry Mum named Margaret Ruff who had had enough.
Her son 45 year old Raymond who lives in a residential group home was still waiting for the jab.
This example struck close to home with regards to my older sister.
And now we had the stats.
Out of 26,000 people with disabilities living in care residences across Australia.
Only 999 had received a jab.
The country had moved to 2A of the vaccine rollout to get everybody over 50 vaccinated but at least 25,000 vulnerable people who fell under catergory 1A which started roll-out in February were still waiting for their jabs.
With the India travel ban there had been renewed talk about how to improve our quarantine system in Australia.
In the news that week there was talk of using Bladin Point for overseas workers for Australian farms to be be quarantined. The facility currently did that for a U.S. Marine Rotational Force that trains in the Northern Territory during the dry season.
The Victorian government had also spent $15 million dollar to prepare for the construction of a 500 bed quarantine facility at Mickleham north of Melbourne. It would take $200 million to build but that was small change compared to the cost to the economy when a capital city or state goes into lockdown.
A proposal from Queensland to build at Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba to quarantine 1,000 travellers and be manned from 300 staff was rejected.
I wondered what were the factors that went into these decisions.
Previously remote locations had been ruled out because of lack of access to major health care facilities.
On the other hand the push was to mitigate all the pressure on hotel quarantines in major capital cities.
Some outbreaks had occurred following leaks from hotel quarantine staff being out in the community unknowingly infecitous.
But other outbreaks had occured when returned travellers had spent time in quarantine, tested negative and subsequently gone out in the community and been infectious.
Yet again other outbreaks had occured from hospital staff becoming infected.
In terms of distance Ipswich was 40 kilometres from Brisbane but also been part of a greater Brisbane lockdowns this year.
A recent lockdown in South East Queensland had seen cases spread as far as Byron Bay 165 kilometrest to the south and Gladstone 515 kilometres to the north.
So distance couldnt’ be the only factor here, available facilities, support and necessary staff and travel all had to be weighed up.
Furthermore it appeared these facilities were to augment not replace hotel quarantine.
Researchers at Griffith University in Queensland were working on an anti-viral drug which would seek out and destroy COVID-19 cells in an infected person’s lungs while leaving other cells unharmed.
The hope was the drug could be on the market in two years.
I really enjoyed going to the Anywhere Festival in 2021 and seeing a terrific show.
It had been a while since we had gone to see a show in the Valley. I once again realised how lucky i was to live in Australia while developments happened elsewhere.
Weekend Notes are a growing online magazine with a wealth of contributors based out of several cities across the United Kingdom, Australia and New York. Articles are leisure related and can include a wide variety of subjects from rainforest hikes to cultural festivals, from what hot new play is on at your underground theatre to a ultra trendy eatery. Writers are paid for their work based partly on how many views their articles get so please feel free to stop by and show some love.
-Lloyd Marken
The Valley. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Leaving Element Collective after the show. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The first repatriation flight for Australians from India since the short lived travel ban took off from New Delhi with only half of the 150 the passengers scheduled to be on board.
Forty-six people had COVID and twenty four were close contacts.
Forty six having tested positive for the more contagious Indian variant and people close to them left behind for what would have been their deliverance.
While the government tried to fill the flight with more passengers, it struggled to do so because of the window for pre-flight testing restrictions.
People like Jitin Wig whose wife and toddler tested positive.
He did want the government to help those left behind with medical support and consider taking particularly vulnerable people if they had COVID.
Would you want to board an international flight with someone with COVID on board?
What was the likelihood somebody on that flight would ultimately test positive?
Could other arrangements be made to get those vulnerable people home than just putting them on a flight with others?
Surely.
Sunny Joura interviewed on ABC News was due to travel on the same flight with his elderley mother but he tested positive.
In a moment that would have been unsettling he did well to stay calm during an interview with ABC News. He had previously tested negative to fly back on the 28th of April when the ban was put in place.
He did suggest that decision could now potentlally prove to have turned out to be a death sentence for him.
He also said that only five repatration flights had been sent over from June to December 2020 to India which had been a missed opportunity to get people home before this subsequent wave. Only 750 out of 10,000 Australians in the country had been able to get on repatriation flights during that six month period. He had been trying to get home for 11 months and had had two flights previously cancelled but this was the first time he had tested positve.
The goverment had tried to fill the suddenly spare seats but pre-flight testing didn’t give much of a window of time.
Prior to boarding people take a PCR test two days before the flight and then a rapid antigen test. Both have to return negative results.
May 15
The next day Qantas Flight 112 touched down in RAAF Darwin with the passengers headed for quarantine in Howard Springs.
I’m sure they didn’t feel that whatever they had gone through was over but hopefully the worst of it was.
How many would test positive while in quarantine?
How many had left for India to care for a loved one or bury them?
How many counted themselves lucky just to be home?
I wonder.
For what its worth in this small corner of the internet.
Welcome home, it’s good to have you back and hope to have everyone home soon.
On the 16th of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 161,854,452 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 675,747.
There had been 3,367,187 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 12,305.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 13,928 confirmed cases. There had been 136 deaths.
There had been 504 new daily cases on May 11. Thirteen deaths would be reported on the 20th of May, the most in one day in the small nation. The spread of the virus was still going on in PNG.
As of the 13th of May there had been 11,537 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Australia there had been 29,967 confirmed cases with a daily increase of ten. There had been 910 deaths.
As of the 27th of April there had been 3,089,183 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In Canada there had been 1,318,399 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,991. There had been 24,869 deaths with a daily increase 44.
As of the 20th of May there had been 20,124,578 vaccine doses dispensed in the country. The population of Canada was 37.59 million people.
In South Africa there had been 1,611,143 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,750. There had been 55,183 deaths with a daily increase of 59.
As of the 25th of May, 2021 there had been only 182,983! vaccine doses dispensed in the country. The population of South Africa was 58.56 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,447,984 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,156. There had been 127,675 deaths with a daily increase of seven.
Those daily numbers were similar to the early part of March 2020 when the first wave was building and late August before numbers continued to rise to devastating effect over winter. Not quite the lull of June and July 2020 but close.
As of the 24th of May there had been 60,965,594 vaccine doses dispensed in the country. The population of Great Britain was 66.65 million people. Given they were now vaccinating people 38 years old and over there must be a few who had gotten second doses or even more?
In India there had been 24,684,077 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 311,170. There had been 270,284 deaths with 4,077.
A record of new daily deaths had been set on the 12th of May with 4,205 deaths recorded that day.
As of the 24th of May there had been 200,494,991 vaccine doses dispensed in the country.
In the United States of America there had been 32,574,504 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 40,431. In March, April, May and June 2020 the daily averages had never been that high. Many had been less than 20,000 back then.
There had been 579,664 deaths with a daily increase of 680.
As of the 13th of May there had been 283,181,265 vaccine doses dispensed in the country. The population of the U.S. was 328.2 million people.
Thursday Australia announced a deal to procure 25 million doses of the American Moderna vaccine with 10 million jabs hopefully by the end of year and then 25 million booster jabs next year to deal with variants.
Adelaide plant BioCina who had bought a plant in Adelaide off Pfizer threw its hat into the ring as being able to produce MRNA vaccines like Moderna at its facility within 12 months.
The Univesity of South Australia was also developing a vaccine in partnership with Biotech Company Semetis had also received three million dollars from the Australian government. It was possible still a year from getting to the market.
In New South Wales 7,500 people got vaccinated in one day.
WIth 7 new cases of blood clots in Australia there were now 18 cases of blood clots from 1,800,000 vaccinations in Australia. That was 1 in a 100,000 chance of having it happening to you someone vaccinated. Remember 1 in 600 Americans had died from COVID last year.
An independent panel for the handling of the pandemic released its findings.
It didn’t get much news coverage despite holding many lessons for I learn from not just for future pandemics for the current ongoing one.
Some critical points were the sharing of information between nations, empowering the World Health Organisation and effectively in terms of the outbreak in the West a lack of action throughout the month of February, 2020.
ABC News reported some suggestions were a disease surveillance system that could publish information about developments in a country they were working in without the need to get permission to do so and rich countries doing more to vaccinate poorer nations.
Let’s hope some lessons are learned from the panel’s findings.
On the 12th of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation recorded in India there had been 4,205 deaths in one day.
A new record.
May 14
A new step in the vaccine roll-out a week on from the 2A cohort was due to start next Monday with 400,000 Pfizer doses to be dispensed to 14 different sites across Victoria for a small group of those under age 50.
You had to make a booking and priority would be given to critical and high risk workers, adults with underlying health conditions, disabiltiy and aged care carers and workers.
Uber Drivers and public transport workers could make a booking from May 24th the following Monday.
Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino advised the state was averaging 8,000 vaccinations a day. A testing clinic at the Melbourne Showgrounds would also open a mass vaccination hub on Monday as well.
Channel Nine News reported three hundred thousand vaccine doses had been given out so far in the state.
In Great Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the staged steps to lower restrictions could be disrupted by the Indian strain which was spreading through Great Britain.
In one week Public Health England reproted cases of the variant had tripled in the country with 1,255 in England, 35 in Scotland, 12 in Northern Ireland and eleven in Wales.
On May 14th, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in the United Kingdom there were 2,656 new daily cases.
On Monday England was due to open up pubs and restaurants and six people from two households could gather at one of their places.
After that was the fourth and final step due June 21 where there will be no limits on social gatherings indoors or outdoors, no limits on weddings and nightclubs will re-open.
Having down throught the ages with one jab currently anyone over 38 could get vaccinated. Now there was a run on to cut the 12 week gap between the first and second jab to just eight weeks for those over 50 or with underlying health conditions.
The UK’s Chief Medical Adviser Professor Chris Whitty warned that if the Indian variant was more transmissible the island nation would see a significant surge.
Remember how the UK strain was up to 70 per cent than the orginal COVID that across the West, well the Indian strain could be 50 per cent more transmissible than the UK strain according to the Scientific Adivsory Gorup for Emergencies (Sage).
The British Army were deployed to the towns Blackburn and Bolton to help with handing out test kits.
Mobile testing units had been set up Bolton and opening hours and delivery of doses had been increased at that town’s vaccination centres.
A rapid response team of 100 nurses, public health advisers and environmental health officers had also been sent.
In the United States of America the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) eased indoor mask wearing guidance for vaccinated people allowing them to not wear masks in most indoor places.
The CDC guidelines showed quite clearly by vaccinating you were less at risk and could engage in more activities.
As vaccinations slowed down there was a push to encourage more of the populace to drive those vaccinated numbers just a little higher.
Governors were doing their part like in Ohio where vaccinated adults could go in the draw to win one million U.S. dollars. I’ll do it for free but God Bless America.
But New York Mayor Bill De Blasio was a man more after my own heart tucking into fast food that New Yorkers could get from Shake Shack if they got vaccinated. Free fries and a burger?! Hmmmmmm.
God Bless America!
And God bless Bill de Blasio, don’t listen to the haters Mr Mayor, you looked good tucking into that burger. I would’ve made a meal of it.
Saturday and I watched the ABC program Planet America which covered that vaccination numbers were going down in America where the most vaccines were available and a country that still had the highest recorded death toll from COVID.
The United States now set a target to have 70 per cent of the population aged 16 and over vaccinated by July 4th Independence Day. Currently about 56 per cent are at least partially vaccinated.
The state with the most fully vaccinated population was Maine with 41.5 per cent.
Texas was at 28 per cent and the state with the least was Alabama with 24.1 per cent.
The Food and Drugs Administration was looking to approve vaccinations for Americans 12 to 15 year olds starting next week.
The Brazil variant had now become the second most prevalent strain in the U.S.
America was also supporting the waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID vaccines.
May 09
In the United Kingdom I got a bit excited that over 40s in the UK were now getting the jab.
I hoped that meant it wouldn’t be much longer for my younger sister and her husband to get the vaccine.
On the 9th of May of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 157,375,575 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 814,195.
There had been 3,278,607 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 13,408.
The WHO reported as of the 20th of May, 1,448,242,899 vaccine doses had been administered worldwide. The population of the world was at least 7.674 billion people.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 12,226 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 140. Two days later there would be 504 new daily cases.
There had been 121 deaths. The next day there would be nine deaths reported. The outbreak continued in PNG.
The WHO reported as of 13th of May there had been 11,537 vaccine doses adminstered in the country. The population of Papua New Guinea was 8.776 million people.
In Australia there had been 29,906 confirmed cases with a daily increase of nine. There had been 910 deaths.
The WHO reported as of the 27th of April 3,089,183 vaccine doses had been administered in the country. The population of Australia 25.36 million people.
In Canada there had been 1,273,169 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,849. There had been 24,529 deaths with a daily increase of 40.
The WHO reported as of the 13th of May there 17,563,063 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of Canada 37.59 million people.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,433,094 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,047. There had been 127,603 deaths with a daily increase of five.
The WHO reported as of the 18th of May there had been 56,992,075 vaccine doses adminitered in the country. The population of Great Britain was 66.65 million people.
In Brazil there had been 15,082,449 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 78,886. There had been 419,144 deaths with a daily increase of 2,165.
The WHO reported as of the 13th of May there had been 50,011,889 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of Brazil was 211 million people.
Turn away if you do not want to be displayed by the plight of the Indian people and what they have endured.
Below is a photo of the bodies in the Ganges River.‘
In India there had been 22,296,414 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 403,738. There had been 242,362 deaths with a daily increase of 4,092.
The day before had been the highest daily death count at 4,187.
The country would reach more than quarter of a million dead on the 12th of May with 254,197 deaths.
Only America and India had reached that milestone and the number of cases and deaths was believed to be much higher.
The WHO reported as of the 17th of May there had been 185,766,518 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of India was 1.366 billion people.
In United States of America there had been 32,338,866 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45,192. There had been 575,521 deaths with a daily increase of 790.
The WHO reported as of 13th of May there had been 264,357,485 vaccine doses administered in the country. The population of the U.S. was 328.2 million people.
A Sydney man and his wife tested positive for COVID-19 having visited 14 suburbs over five days where he unknowingly had the virus.
In a twist there was no explanation for how we caught it.
Genomic testing linked him an American man who quarantined at the Park Royal in late April. So there was a missing link.
New restrictions were put in place on the eve of Mother’s Day to run three days until midnight Sunday night.
Mask were to be worn indoors and on public transport, there was no singing or dance indoors with the exception of weddings where 20 could get up and boogy. No more than 20 visitors were allowed in households and no more than two visitors to aged care facilities.
Additionally there was the missing link element here, somebody was out in the community potentially with COVID with no idea that they had it, maybe even more.
Yet the New South Wale Premier was urging people to go out about their business.
It also did eventuate in a lockdown in south east Queensland so Berejiklian’s comments needed to taken as seriously as her thoughts had been prior to making them.
In Victoria state run vaccination centres were averaging 8,000 jabs a day since phase 2A started earlier in the week.
The New Zealand government paused travel from Sydney for two days.
Six thousand people from New South Wales had travelled to New Zealand over the last 6 days would be contacted.
Those who had been to Sydney hotspots travelling into Western Australia were ordered to self quarantine for 14 days and those entering Queensland had to go into hotel quarantine.
Canada also approved Pfizer for use on teenagers aged 12-16 following trials. There was still a long way to go in vaccinating the adult population though.
In Queensland a man was in Intensive Care following blood clotting after getting the AstraZeneca vaccination. He was one of five cases of clotting across the country in the past ten days as the government moved to deliver 270,000 doses of the vaccine next week.
There had been eleven cases of blood clotting after 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca had been given in Australia including one dose to yours truly.
That is 11 / 1 400 000.
That is so far you had a 1 / 140 000 chance of getting a blood clot.
Out of those eleven cases though had been one fatality.
The threat of dying from COVID remained higher even in a country like Australia where case numbers and deaths had been so low.
Capacity at the Howard Springs facility was due to expand from 850 to 2,000 in preparation for repatriation flights from India as more aid from Australia landed in India.
An ABC News report said that these expansions would be complete by the end of the month, not May 15 but it did give the government time to have undertaken a lot of the work to expand capacity if repatriations did begin on May 15.
Two weeks is a long time in politics, Perth had been in lockdown at the end of April with talk about high numbers of COVID cases in hotel quarantine.
Back then the pressure was on for the Federal Government to act to protect the country from another outbreak in the community and certain sectors of the media were constantly bemoaning shutdowns as hurtful to the economy.
The plan to do something had been discussed at National Cabinet and signed off by health beaurecrats.
But now less than a week later and the focus was on the moral considerations of such an unprecedented decision and the government seemed anxious to peel back the law in another weeks’ time.
Phrasing it around lower number COVID cases in hotel quarantine and a shift to more repatriations through facilities like Howard Springs made sense.
It was understood the first repatriation flight from India would start as soon as the ban lifted May 15 with a flight that could bring home 200 passengers with priority given to 900 Australians stranded in the sub-continent that were classed as vulnerable.
At one point the infection rate at Howard Springs was 15 per cent, much higher than the goal of two per cent causing concern for the quarantine system and potentially Darwin’s hospital system.
However now those numbers had halved and there was an expectation they could be close to zero by next weekend.
No decision had been made yet about commercial flights coming in from India.
Meanwhile the situation in India remained dire.
Positive test results for COVID were averaging about 20 per cent and plenty of people were not getting tested and dying from COVID.
The percentage fo the population that had been fully vaccinated was 2.2%.
More than 46,000 Red Cross staff and volunteers were helping in India.
In the capital city Kathmandu of neighbouring Nepal positve test results for COVID were up to 47 per cent. The country was in lockdown and its hospitals were stretched.
On May 7th, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in India there had been 21,491,598 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 414,188.
The highest ever – 414,188.
The global total of new cases in the world that day was a little over double this with 853,895.
There had been 234,083 deaths with a daily increase of 3,915.
The next day would set a new record with 4,187 deaths.
The vaccine rollout continued in Australia with vaccinations being opened up to the 2A Cohort. Anyone over 50 could now get the jab and the main jab available was the AstraZeneca one.
This had followed discussions at National Cabinet.
Politically it was commented that maybe with the vaccine rollout not going smoothly the Prime Minister had moved to more closely consult with state Premiers to achieve results and to also share any blame for failure to deliver.
Either way, with the decision to list Pfizer as the preferred jab for under 50s, the very rare examples of blood clotting being reported in media, and elements of the community that were fearful or against vaccinations – there was now a need to build momentum and confidence.
Sometimes I worry that people have become complacent over our good fortune here in Australia.
There are plenty of countries that avoided major outbreaks for some time before falling foul of the virus.
There was also talk about the need to open up borders and that would only be suitable once we got the majority of the population vaccinated.
So this was the next step and a step in the right direction.
Nearly 16 million doses would be part of 2A which was a cohort of six million Australians aged 50 to 69.
I knew that still not all of 1B had been completed which included people with disabilities and the staff at their centres.
Across the country people were lining up at vaccination hubs including people like the 53 year old recently re-elected Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan who rolled up his sleeve for the AstraZeneca jab.
In Melbourne there were waiting times for people who just rocked up on the day – some as long as two hours.
On Monday a new element to the India travel ban that had been announced on Saturday came into effect.
Any travellers who have been in India in the 14 days leading up to their date of arrival in Australia could face jail time of up to five years and a fine of up to $66,000.
Opposition MP Jason Clare suggested Christmas Island as a solution as had been done a year earlier with people returning from China but notably that was previous to the Howard Springs facility being set up.
I attended my local medical centre to get my scheduled vaccination. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
April 27
I caught up with my GP in regards to a recent endoscopy I had taken.
I mentioned I had tried to book a vaccine appointment online and had been unable to.
Weeks earlier she had advised I was under 1B cohort and would be getting the vaccine but the health advice had changed since then.
Pfizer was now the preferred vaccine for under 50s which she explained meant I could now wait for the Pfizer.
I told her I was not concerned about the risk from COVID to myself but I did believe we as a community needed to get as many people vaccinated as much as possible and that I was happy to play my part. i was prepared to get the AztraZeneca vacccine, my specialist had advised I could and the risk was extremely minimal.
There were things she needed to consider as my General Practioner but we were in agreement.
She identified a time to get the jab that Thursday morning, when I mentioned wanting to make a vaccine appointment I was told they were very booked up at the moment but I mentioned Thursday morning and sure enough there was a spare and I was booked in.
My GP has always taken good care of me.
April 29
Thursday was the day and I arrived for my 11:40 appointment.
I got taken into a room and debriefed and filled out a form. It was noted that I appeared younger than 50 (what a relief) but I my specialist and GP had given the go ahead.I went into another room, was sat down, took off my shirt and then I was jabbed in the shoulder.
I was then sat in another room for 15 minutes to see if I had any adverse reactions.
The vaccination was administered entirely by medical staff at my local medical centre.
Fifteen minutes later I was free to go and ushered out the door.
It ran like clockwork and was painless.
I got quite a bruise from my flu vaccination weeks earlier even though the needle had gone in particularly smoothly.
Not such a significant bruise with the vaccine jab, nor fatigue or muscle aches for me althought the next day working from home I had felt my hips and back hurting from sitting at my desk but that happened quite a bit.
I have been hanging on tenterhooks for others I know to get protection from COVID.
My sister in particular in the UK where there had been so many cases and deaths but also friends, family and fellow bloggers from around the world and here.
Getting one myself didn’t make me feel much different.
However I bellieve it is something we should all do as soon as we can, I believe it is part of much larger effort to make our way down the road to recovery.
I wanted Karen to get one too and it seemed likely she would be lucky to receive a vaccination by the end of the year. I was not happy about that.
Yet it still kind of blew my mind that less than 14 months after our lives radically changed in mid-March 2020 and here I was receiving a vaccination.
I was very lucky to live in Australia.
Was it possible my dose had been made in India. I don’t know probably not but it was one more reason to be grateful and to think of what I was going to do with my good fortune.
I understand some people are scared of getting vaccines. The only thing I would say is the statistics seem to suggest you have a one in million chance of dying from the blood clot.
But COVID will cause further outbreaks. Even the small ones expereinced recently in Australia probably carry a greater risk to you than taking the vaccine. Taking the vaccine isn’t just about yourself either, it’s about building a herd immunity that will hopefully bring this disease under control.
I know you’re scared but I know you can be brave too. So maybe talk to your doctor and see what they advise.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
May 02
On the 2nd of May, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 151,882,470 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 829,666.
There had been 3,188,172 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 13,229.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 11,262 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 56. There had been 115 deaths.
Two weeks later on the 13th of May, the WHO reported there had been 11,537 vaccine doses administered in the country. That was it. Less than the number of cases reported in the country.
One hundred and thirty thousand vaccine doses had been announced to be delivered to PNG under the COVAX scheme in mid-April.
In Australia there had been 29,812 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eleven. There had been 910 deaths.
In Malaysia there had been 411,594 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,881. There had been 1,521 deaths with a daily increase of 15.
In Canada there had been 1,219,425 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,342. There had been 24,219 deaths with a daily increae of 50.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,418,534 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,907. There had been 127,524 deaths with a daily increase of seven.
The numbers were now finally under the kind of figures that had been posted during the initial first wave in the UK. They weren’t as low as the daily averages from the previous summer but they were the lowest they had been since September.
In India there had been 19,557,457 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 392,488.
The highest number of daily new cases recorded in the country had been yesterday with 401,993 cases.
There had been 215,542 deaths with a daily increase of 3,689. A new record of daily new deaths in the country.
In the United States of America there had been 32,039,197 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 53,619. Still way too high. There had been 570,835 deaths with a daily increase of 810.
I took it in when the burning pyres were shown on a scale that was hard to see.
But the image that got to me was men simply laying bricks and building for more cremations.
In a split second my brain recognised the scale of death you’ve seen is nothing compared to what is to come.
Police went everywhere to deal with anger spilling out from a population feeling such anguish and fear.
Perversely there were still religous ceremonies and festivals going ahead in river banks, in mass groupings and without social distancing or mask wearing.
The pandemic was raging.
RAGING.
It had raged in Wuhan, it had raged in New York, it had raged in India previously reaching nine million cases and it had raged in Brazil and was still raging.
But it almost felt like the scenes coming out of India…
If we had held out hope that 2021 would not be as bad as 2020 – as I had hoped – well that hope was almost irrelevant now.
I do still want to see that the vaccine had changed the situation but seeing loss on such sale meant that whatever gains we came out of this year we had witnessed very clearly that the situation can become as tragic and heartbreaking as it has ever been.
On the 28th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in India there had been 17,997,267 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 360,960. There had been 201,187 deaths with a daily increase of 3,293 deaths.
In the face of such events it can be easy to lose heart. But helping in whatever way you can makes a diffrence. There were many organisations that could use support at this time.
One of them is Medicines Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
In early April a MSF team supported the COVID_19 facility set up in Port Moresby by the National Capital District’s Provincial Health Authority with a capacity of 43 beds for very ill patients.
The team has trained local medical practitioners on emergency situations, the application of PPE, oxygen therapy and treatment of acute pneumonia.
They go wherever they’re needed and donations go to their underlying cause to allow them to response to any crisis where they’re needed not just where the world’s attention is currently focused on.
On the larger scale the Australian government made a decision to stop all direct flights returning from India India due to the higher number of COVID cases from returned travellers in hotel quarantine in particular from India.
The Australian government was also sending 500 ventilators, 1 million surgical masks, 500,000 P2 and N95 masks, 100,000 goggles, 100,000 pairs of gloves and 20,000 face shields.
On the 27th of April, the World Health Organisation reported there had been 17,636,307 confirmed cases with a daily increae of 323,144. There had been 197,894 deaths with a daily increase of 2,771.
“I stress this is an initial package, there’ll be more to follow,” the Prime Minister advised about the aid being sent.
The European Union decided to sue AstraZeneca for breach of contract after they failed to deliver 30,000,000 dozes of their COVID vaccine by the end of June. The pharmaceutical company was only going to be able to deliver a third of that amount.
The U.S. government planned to send 60 million doses of AstraZeneca overseas to where it is needed if the move gets approval from the Food and Drugs Administration.
Light Up the Dawn Services continued across the country repeating the new tradition established last year due to COVID lockdowns.
But public marches did return to most states even if with COVID restrictions.
I took no part in any of it but I did pause and think about the fallen.
On the 25th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 146,142,034 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 850,448.
There had been 3,094,238 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 13,282.
The largest single daily increase of new cases was on the 23rd of April, 2021 – 912,279.
The highest number of deaths recorded in one day remained 16,660 reported on the 28th of January.
I’m sure who died from COVID had been underreported. Through the sheer scale fo the loss it was impossible to know for sure they said.
In Australia there had been 29,658 with a daily increase of 19. There had been 910 deaths.
In New Zealand there had been 2,245 confirmed cases and 26 deaths.
In Papua New Guinea, home of the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, there had been 10,670 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 68. There had been 102 deaths. The country remained in the grip of the pandemic spreading.
In South Africa there had been 1,574,370 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,385. There had been 54,125 deaths with a daily increase of 59.
In Turkey there had been 4,591,416 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 40,596. There had been 38,011 deaths with a daily increase of 339.
Their highest number of new daily cases had just been a week earlier on the 17th of April with 63,082.
The highest number of daily deaths would be 394 recorded on May the 1st, 2021.
In Germany there had been 3,287,418 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 18,773. There had been 81,564 with a daily increase of 120.
In Italy there had been 3,949,517 confimed cases with a daily increase of 13,814. There had been 119,021 deaths with a daily increase of 322.
In Japan there had been 562,141 confirmed cases with a daily increase 5,142. There had been 9,913 deaths with a daily increase of 59. There was growing surge of new cases in the country.
In South Korea there had been 118,887 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 644. There had been 1,813 deaths with a daily increase of one.
In Malaysia there had been 390,252 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,717. There had been a 1,426 deaths with a daily increase of eleven. There was a growing surge in Malaysia too.
In Indonesia there had been 1,636,792 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,544. There had been 44,500 deaths with a daily increase of 154.
In Vietnam there had been 2,833 confirmed cases with a daily increase of one. There had been 35 deaths.
In Zimbabwe there had been 38,064 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 19. There had been 1,556 deaths.
In Namibia there had been 47,671 with a daily increase of 288. There had been 624 deaths with a daily increase of two.
In Cambodia there had been 9,975 confimed cases with a daily increase of 616. There had been 74 deaths with a daily increase of three. The country had recently seen the pandemic take off there.
On May 4th, 2021 the country recorded its highest daily number of new cases with 938. The highest number of daily deaths was ten on the 24th of April, 2021.
In Somalia there had been 13,459 confirmed cases and 689 deaths. No daily increases that day.
The highest number of new daily cases was 326 on March 30th, 2021. The highest number of daily deaths was 32 on April 15, 2021.
In Rwanda there had been 24,535 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 76. There had been 328 deaths.
In Timor-Leste there had been 1,808 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 151. There had been three deaths.
Like Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and others, COVID was starting to be reported more in the tiny young nation. Their population was 1.293 million people. By the 2nd of May, 2021 30,599 vaccine doses would have been distrubuted in the country.
On May 9th, 2021 would be the highest amount of new daily cases with 262. Three deaths on May 14th, 2021 would be the highest daily record in the country so far.
In the Solomon Islands there had been 20 confirmed cases and zero deaths reported.
In Afghanistan there had been 58,843 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 113. There had been 2,582 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Iraq there had been 1,025,288 with a daily increase of 6,967. There had been 15,217 deaths with a daily increase of 43.
The highest number of new daily cases in the country was 8,696 three days earlier on the 22nd of April, 2021. A new wave of cases was cresting in the country.
In Canada there had been 1,164,581 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,747. There had been 23,883 deaths with a daily increase of 61.
The highest number of new daily cases was 10,275 fours day earlier on April 21, 2021.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,403,174 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,061. There had been 127,417 deaths with a daily increase of 32.
In India there had been 16,960,172 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 349,691!
It was a new record for new daily cases but pretty much every day was a new heartbreaking record that left death and misery in it’s wake of a scale previously unseen.
There had been 192,311 deaths in the country with a daily increase of 2,767.
In the United States of America there had been 31,693,289 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 61,884. There had been 566,184 deaths with a daily increase of 838. Still way too high.
All those lives lost in countries around the world.
Just like lives lost in a war.
We were a year into this war, the casaulties were mounting and yet here we were. Vaccines had been made. We opened up, we closed down, waves came and went. Life wasn’t the same and wasn’t going be for a while yet but it still went on.
At the end of it, maybe for a lot of people nothing will ever be the same. Some memories will haunt, some losses will be painfully felt for the rest of days to come.
But come they will.
If not for us then for those who come after us.
All we can do is our best and the rest will take care of itself.
At a National Cabinet meeting the and federal leaders agreed to opening up vaccinations to anyone over 50 in Australia.
Regardless of whether the older age groups had all been vaccinated.
The thinking was as more people got more vaccinated it might grow confidence for some to get vaccinated who were sitting on the fence.
Hence starting on 2A phase of those aged 50-69 before the rest of 1B had been completed.
There wasn’t a lot of coverage in the media at the moment but I can tell that not all those with disabilities or living in supported accomodation had received their vaccines yet.
Six million Australians would come under the 2A phase.
The Department of Health reported on April 14th, 2.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine had been produced in country and 714,000 received from overseas.
The changes would be potentially approved at the next National Cabinet meeting scheduled to take place on Thursday but had agreed in-principle to the changes.
The Prime Minister said National Cabinet still planned for GPs to be the primary way of dispensing vaccines to the populace but state governments would look to assist with mass vaccination sites.
Australia remained slow in getting its country vaccinated.
This had implications for opening borders back up going forward causing issues for trade and business but as the Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted, “The pandemic is raging. globally. It’s raging.”
Also being discussed was mass vaccine centre hubs in particular to when Pfizer doses arrived later in the year for under 50s to get vaccinated with.
There was also talk from the Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt about looking to set up an MRNA capacity here in Australia but it could take up to a year.
In India a surging new wave of cases and deaths continued in a country that was a major vaccine producer.
On April 19th, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 15,061,919 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 273,810. There had been 178,769 deaths with a daily increase of 1,619.
They had reported a million new cases in less than a week.
New restrictions and curfews were being put in place but the the wave was rising.
Sixty per cent of all vaccines were produced in India and the country was home to the Serum Institute of India which was the world’s largest vaccine producer.
They were a major player in the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX.
But now India was in short supply of vaccines themselves.
While vaccines could only do so much now given the spread was happening it did raise questions about the competing priorities of India’s delivery of vaccines to the rest of the world and to its own people.
SII had also previously slowed down exports in January to prioritise the most vulnerable in India with vaccines. Those decisions did have impacts abroad particularly in Africa.
The world has never looked to produce vaccines on this scale in these timeframes.
The United States of America with the most number of reported cases and deaths in the world had placed a temporary ban on raw materials used for vaccine production. The European Union had also tightened restrictions around vaccine exports.
The two main vaccines in India were the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine also known as Covishield, and the Indian vaccine Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
Their roll out began in earnest in January with health care workers and those highest at risk. They wanted to vaccinate 300 million people by August in a country of 1.4 billion people.
Covaxin had been rushed into service before third trial efficacy data had been released but initial vaccine hesitancy had been overcome.
Still only 14.3 million Indians had been fully vaccinated and now the pandemic was raging.
The capacity to have vaccinated the whole country in such a short time would not have been possible.
In Punjab last week there had been 450,000 doses of Covishield and 30,000 doses of Covaxin in a state of 27 million.
Other states had to suspend their vaccinations including the COVID ravaged Maharashtra which had also administered more than 11.1 million doses more than any other state.
Last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with state governors had praised the success of India’s vaccination efforts.
India had become the fastest nation to reach 100 million jabs in 85 days. America had taken 89 and China 102.
The Indian government moved to receive more vaccines the same week by fast tracking approval of vaccines already approved for use in other countries.
Wednesday and my Mum and Dad got their Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine.
This was a huge relief for me.
I am told that on the way to the centre they were a little nervous and decided to put on the radio for some music to distract themselves and a news bulletin about blood clotting came on and they promptly turned the radio off.
There were no side effects and they will get a second dose in three months time.
April 22
The Australian government announced a travel ban on all direct flights from India. That included Australians trying to return home.
312,731 new cases were reported in the country that day alone and there were now well over 2 million active cases in India at 2,291,428.
2,104 deaths had been recorded in a single day.
The death toll stood at 184,657.
One third of active cases in Australia have now orginated from returning flights from India.
The travel ban will started on April 27 and will last for two weeks until May 15 when a further decision will be made.
New South Wales was also going to have a major vaccination hub open by mid-May to delvier 30,000 doses a week.
April 23
Friday the week was coming to an end, a long weekend beckoned but perhaps appropriately on the eve of ANZAC Day the mood was sombre as Perth went into a three day lockdown, a boat with COVID cases docked in Australia and images out of India broke my heart. Just look at that masked woman at the end shaking as she cries.
A man in his 50s had flown into Melbourne on Wednesday and tested positive Friday morning. He had been in hotel quarantine for the required days then been out in the Perth Community for five days with a friend who had now tested positive.
Those 270 passengers on the flight into Melbourne would need to isolate for 14 days and were currently being contact by Victorian authorities.
Thirteen more people had tested positive in the Howard Springs quarantine facility in Darwin – all returned travellers from India in the past week. So they were deferring flights throughout May into June.
There were 18 more hotel quarantine cases in New South Wales, twelve of them returned travellers from India.
Channel Nine 9 News reported the Queensland Premier had written a letter to the Prime Minister calling for a two week freeze on any travel from India.
Thirteen out of fifteen Port Botany workers tested negative to COVID having boarded a tanker previously that had an outbreak of COVID on board.
The tanker Inge Kosan had travelled from Port Moresby and docked in Sydney on the 31st of March and then gone on to Vanuatu where it was detained with twelve cases on board and one death due to COVID.
But it was India that captured our attention. Well over a year into a virus that first impacted China in late 2019 had wrecked havoc but perhaps never on a scale like this.
It was heartbreaking.
Just when you think we might have seen the worst of this.
A New South Wales woman had died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
There had been 79 clotting incidents following 20 million jabs of the vaccine in the UK.
Now there had been three in Australia.
As the federal government looked to ramp up their vaccine rollout the numbers were daunting.
Currently 100,000 Pfizer doses were arriving every week.
That needed to ramp up to 1,500,000 doses a week to meet to all 40 million doses arrive by year’s end. Close to 50 million doses would be needed to vaccinate the whole population.
THe 40 million Pfizer doses of course were only part of 170 million doses we had on order.
It was unlikely we would receive all doses by Christmas but the end goal had to be vaccinating people as quickly as possible. Novavax was still unapproved, delivery numbers of Pfizer was less than ideal and now the AstraZeneca was not the preferred choice for under 50s.
April 17
Forty eight year-old Genene Norris of the New South Wales Central Coast had passed away from blood clots having received the AstraZeneca vaccine. On saturday The Therapeutic Goods Administration advised her death was likely linked to the vaccine. She received her jab on the morning of the 8th of April hours before the government changed their policy. She did have underlying health conditions including diabetes.
A recent Oxford University study had pointed out that getting COVID led to an even higher risk of getting blood clotting which Professor Kelly referred.
There had been 330,000 vaccinations carried out in Australia in the past seven days but anecdotally a Sydney GP told of a halving of his vaccination bookings.
National Cabinet meetings were scheduled to go every two weeks to work through vaccination roll out issues.
On the 18th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 140,373,652 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 835,129.
We reached 3 million deaths worldwide from COVID the same day.
3,005,346 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 11,858.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 9,738 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 223. There had been 89 deaths with a daily increase of five.
April 15th had marked the highest number of new daily deaths in the country with eleven.
In Australia there had been 29,505 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 21. There had been 910 deaths.
On the 29th of December the last COVID death in Australia had been reported.
April 14th, 2021 marked the first new death from COVID in the country since then.
In Canada there had been 1,106,062 confirmed cases 9,346. There had been 23,541 deaths with a daily increase of 41.
Cases were surging.
A record of new daily cases had been reached in the country on December 28, 2020 with 9,827 cases.
That record was broken on April 13th, 2021 with 9,936 new daily cases and it would be again on the 21st of April, 2021 with 10,275 new cases.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,385,942 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,206. There had been 127,260 deaths with a daily increase of 35.
In Brazil there had been 13,832,455 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 85,774. There had been 368,749 deaths with a daily increase of 3,305.
In India there had been 14,788,109 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 261,500. There had been 177,150 deaths with a daily increase of 1,501.
The next day there were 273,810 new daily confirmed cases.1,619 new reported daily deaths.
Every day was a grim new record.
A week later 349,691 new daily cases and 2,767 deaths.
Every day in between a new record.
In the United States of America there had been 31,250,635 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 73,697. There had been 560858 deaths with a daily increase of 911.
ONE YEAR EARLIER: April 17, 2020
The World Health Organisation reported there had been 2,080,235 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 81,839.
139,507 people had died from COVID-19. The daily increase was 8,473.
Vaccinations were rolling out across regional communities in Queensland including up in the far north where we were bordered with Papua New Guinea.
April 11
Sunday.
On the 11th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 135,097,616 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 754692.
There had been 2,921,503 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 11,974.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 8,442 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 100. There had been 68 deaths.
In Australia there had been 29,396 confirmed cases with a daily increase of six. There had been 909 deaths.
In Canada there had been 1,045,278 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 9,255. Two days later the country would set a new record of daily new cases with 9,936. There had been 23,251 deaths with a daily increase of 40.
May 4, 2020 still remained the date where the highest number of deaths had been reported with 235.
During the second wave 210 deaths had been reported on January 9th, 2021. The highest number of daily deaths in that wave.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,368,049 with a daily increase of 845. There had been 127,080 with a daily increase of 40.
In India there had been 13,358,805 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 152,879. There had been 169,275 deaths with a daily increase of 839.
The highest number of new daily cases during the first wave in India had been 97,894 on the 17th of September, 2020. The numbers were well beyond that now.
That record got broken on the 5th of April, 2021 with 103,558 new daily cases.
April 7th a new record again with 115,736 new cases.
April 8th – 126,789.
April 9th – 131,968.
April 10th – 145,384.
And a new record again on the 11th of April with 152,879 with no end in sight.
In Brazil there had been 13,373,174 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 93,317. There had been 348,718 deaths with a daily increase of 3,693. The day had seen their highest recorded amount of daily deaths with 4,249.
In the United States of America there had been 30,772,857 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 80,631. Way too high as it appeared America was rising slightly in daily average of new cases. There had been 555,712 deaths with a daily increase of 929.
April 13
A report on the Channel 10 program The Project covered that the Australian government was not intending to purchase the Johnson and Johnson vaccine as it was same type of vaccine as the AztraZeneca vaccine which we were manufacturing in Melbourne at CSL Limited.
We remained reliant on delivery of the PfizerBioNTech vaccine for the majority of those under 50s going forward and had used it for the bulk of our frontline workers in healthcare and hospitality already.
So why weren’t were we manufacturing Pfizer here?
Well that was because the PfizerBioNTech vaccine was an MRNA vaccine that we didn’t have the current capability to build.
However The Project report argued with proper funding we could have such a capacity maybe in 12 months.
A year seems a long time away and facility building always seem to suffer delays but such an investment could pay off down the line in the future.
Given what had transpired in the past year and the need to give ourselves more options in the fight to overcome COVID it seemed like a compelling idea worth a further look.
April 14
In the United States of America the government hit pause in the use of new Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“This announcement will not have a significant impact on our vaccination plan: Johnson & Johnson vaccine makes up less than 5 per cent of the recorded shots in arms in the United States to date,” Mr White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said.
As of April 12th there had been 6.8 million shots of the jab administered in the country.
Less than 5 per cent of all vaccinations in the country with Pfizer and Moderna accounting 180 million doses delivered.
Out of the 6.8million Johnson & Johnson shots there had been 6 cases of blood clots and so far no deaths.
The six cases involved all women aged 18 to 48 and symptoms occurred six to 13 days after they received their shot.
The Australian government had made a decision earlier in the week to not place orders for the vaccine. Having 170 million AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Novavax vials in the pipeline.
Johnson & Johnson announced it would also delay its rollout of the vaccine in Europe.
The British/Swiss Oxford AstraZeneca, the American Johnson & Johnson, the Chinese CanSino Biological and the Russsian Sputnik V vaccine were all adenovirus vector vaccine. A “cold” virus that instructs our cells to produce a spike protein found on the surface of the virus.
The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines use mRNA technology. Those are harder to manufacture and have to be kept in freezing temperatures as opposed to simple refrigeration.
Twenty million of the Johnson & Johnson doses had been delivered to America, they had just started getting the first of what was planned to be 75 million doses by the end of June and 120 million by end of September.
Three hundred thousand vaccinations had been given in South Africa.
Four hundred million doses were scheduled to go to the Africa bloc.
Remember how I said this would be the vaccine given to the third world because it was a one shot jab that doesn’t require refrigeration?
As America hit pause on Johnson & Johnson and Australia demurred the vaccine, the spotlight turned to Novavax a little in my country.
With Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for under 50s, the bulk of which was scheduled to come in the final quarter of 2021 – Australia’s third vaccine became of greater importance.
Fifty one million doses to come sometime in mid-2021 but when could be anywhere from July to September now following supply shortages.
Trials in Great Britain with 15,000 people resulted in an efficacy rate of 89.3 per cent.
Pfizer had a efficacy rate of 95%, Moderna at 94.1%, the efficacy of AstraZeneca had a wider range of results from 62 to 90 per cent. A recent study published in The Lancet showed a twelve week wait between doses which was becoming the norm in places like the UK and Australia showed 82 per cent.
Trials in South Africa up against the South African variant had the rate go down to as low as 49.4 per cent.
While we weren’t taking up Johnson & Johnson for the moment and Novavax was our third and currently last option, the vaccine was likely to be approved for other countries (many invested in its development) before Australia.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was working on a scheme people returning from trips overseas quarantining at home. If they had been vaccinated. This would be for initial essential overseas travel like business deals, medical procedures and family funerals.
Vaccinations had also taken a dip following the government’s announcement last Thursday night.
The Prime Minister also announced an intention to have the 16 million Australians under 50 receive their first and second Pfizer doses through October to December 2021 using mass vaccination sites but who would man them was raised in response.
Where I live there isn’t much in the news about Canada.
I have always taken care to keep track of their stats on the World Health Organisation dashboard because I know people over in Canada and I want to know what they’re facing.
Canada had its share of woes but in comparison to the United Kingdom and the United States their numbers were not as bad.
Now with the United States of America steaming ahead with vaccinations and the UK dispensing at a fast rate too the numbers were changing.
If you look at the graph above taken from today May the 9th, 2021 Canada experienced a severe second wave over their most recent cold months. This is similar to most of the world following an initial wave in March/April 2020.
But unlike say the UK or the US, Canada has experienced what some other European countries have which is despite the introduction of the vaccine they have quickly gone into a third wave.
Spare a thought for some of the European countries which had no dip in February or March and whose death rates have also gone up.
With Canada while the case numbers have risen, so far the death rates have not followed suit at the same rate.
It noted during the first two waves of COVID in the country, Canada’s numbers were among the lowest in Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations and with a significantly lower infection rate than the U.S.
Now that was looking to change. The BBC reported Canada was averaging 180 cases per million.
The US was just ahead with 196 cases per million, down from 700 cases per million in January.
The B117 UK Variant was the dominant strain in the country with 90 per cent of cases but the Brazilian P1 variants was also now in the community and rapidly spreading.
In Ontairo where 14 million people lived, a four week lockdown had been imposed with non-essential retail and Toronto schools shut down.
The Vancouver Canucks hockey team had postponed games as 25 players and staff caught COVID.
The BBC reported the US had fully vaccinated 19.6% of its population, compared with 8.5% in the UK and 2% in Canada.
Having started vaccinations on December 14, Canada had orders with 7 different vaccine supplies totalling 400 million doses but it has very little production capacity itself.
The only two approved vaccines for the country in February were Moderna and Pfizer with delays of delivery as production ramped up in Europe and countries despately needed the vaccine too.
At the point six million doses were expected to be delivered by the end of March.
Similar though not as stringent as a scheme Australia put in place eleven months earlier in late March 2020!
Vaccines could be less effetive against the new strains taking off and also as shown in Brazil affect more young people leading the median age of hospitalisations becoming much younger.
In the videos below you can watch interviews with Intensive Care Unit physician Dr Michael Warner discussing the situation with hospitalisations in Ontairo in March, 2021.
Provincial Governors in Canada issued lockdowns and restrictions in response to rising hospitalisations.
But the action taken by each province varied.
There was a curfew in Montreal and Laval and four areas of the Quebec province had seen lockdowns extended.
Just that week a gym in Quebec City was the epicentre of a spread of 419 cases.
Comparatively the Maritime provinces followed a similar policy to New Zealand with quick and severe suppression strategies. They now had established a travel bubble amongst each other.
On April 30, 2021 there was an update on the petition.
A statement had been released by the Ontairo’s Minister of Education Stephen Lance that from the 3rd of May, all education workers in the province would be able to book a vaccine appointment.
We hoped the vaccines would see the end of the worst of the pandemic but it is not over yet.
Canada, the lack of dips in Europe, the situation in places like Papua New Guinea, Brazil and India are painful reminders of this.
Maybe there is hope to be found in the fact that Canada with rising case numbers and hospitalisations and low vaccine rates still has not seen a similar rise in deaths.
Either way Canada you are never far from my thoughts.
On the 9th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported in Canada there had been 1,028,041 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,148. There had been 23,173 deaths with a daily increase of 32.
-Lloyd Marken
ONE YEAR EARLIER: April 09, 2020.
The WHO reported in Canada there were 18,433 cases with a daily increase of 1,384. There had been 401 Canadians die with a daily increase of 56.
My brother from another mother passed on some very good news.
His father, mother and brother had all recovered from COVID and were out of hospital.
It was quite a relief.
There were some pretty sad stories about the state of hospitals and the number of people getting sick in India and it was only going to get worse.
He told me a story of a wardsman who basically slept at the hospital, worked non-stop and applied IV tubes to patients since medical students were being pressed into service.
As so many sad stories were set to come out of India we had one of relief although anxiety still remained high.
In Australia 920,334 vaccines doses had been dispensed.
Still a fairly slow rate and in the news were the fact that private hospitals in Brisbane had still not been able to vaccinate their frontline staff. Including the Brisbane Private Hospital, St Andrews Memorial Hosptial and the Wesley Hospital. Hospitals I had been a pateint at over the years.
April 09
Thursday night and a radical blow was struck to Australia’s vaccine roll out.
The main element of the the country’s vaccine strategy had been 53 million AstraZeneca doses with over fifty million doses to be made right her in Australia at CSL limited.
Pfizer had been used and other vaccines were going to be secured but the Oxford-AstraZeneca was going to be our jab of choice.
That was until now.
The Australian government named Pfizer as the preferred vaccine for adults under 50.
I personally had been waiting for the vaccine to be available at my local medical centre to receive a jab. Now I could not make a booking because I was under 50.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) advised getting a rare blood clot after receiving the vaccine was somewhere between one in 166,000 and one in 250,000.
Out of those stats about a quarter would die.
So that was approximately a one in 800,000 chance of dying from taking the AstraZeneca jab.
According to UNSW haematology senior researcher Jose Perdomo, it appears “very likely” that the AstraZeneca vaccine triggers a unique immune reaction characterised by low platelet count and clotting.
The average Australia had a one in 1,000 chance of getting a blood clot from deep vein thrombosis and 6 per cent of those would die. That is a one in 17,000 chance of an Australian dying from DVT in a year.
In Australia over 900 hundred had died from COVID. That alone was a one in 30,000 chance of dying from it in a country where the disease had been relatively so far kept in check.
If every Australian was vaccinated with AstraZeneca given the current statistics it could be estimated that something like 25 would tragically die. Far less than 900.
However I beleived the governments were far more prepared to have lose lives through lack of action rather than through direct action.
Who really wants to be the one who pulls the trigger on 25 lives?
No one.
But the cost of doing nothing could be end up being higher.
I wondered if in a country that had suffered far more loss if the risk of these blood clots would lead to such decisions.
And it had.
In Great Britain where over 125,000 people had died from COVID and government had failed to enact restrictions as early as some other countries.
In the country partly responsible for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and having rolled out the drug to many millions already even there Great Britain was restricting use in people under the age of 30.
On April 7th the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that Pfizer or Moderna vaccine be offered to people under 30.
They presented a risk/reward analysis based on a COVID-19 infection rate of 2 per 10,000 – roughly equivalent to the UK’s situation in March.
The UK government had come to this decision from a risk reward analysis based off the statistics from March when the risk of COVID was 2 per 10,000.
Analysis, prepared by Cambridge University based on this statistic argued that someone aged 20-29 was more likely to end up in intensive care from AstraZeneca than COVID.
That of course didn’t take into account the lowering of the median age of hospitalisations whwere the Brazilian stain was prevalent or that the March had not been the height of Britain’s most devastating COVID wave.
In fact other Cambridge researchers from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication prepared models with higher infection rates that still showed the risk was higher of catching COVID than taking the vaccine.
Friday the UK government was still planning to have all of Briish adults vaccinated by the end of July.
For the family of 59 year old British man Neil Astles who had passed away from a blood clot within hours of receiving an AstaZeneca jab this was all too real and yet still his sister Dr Alison Astles urged people to get vaccinated.
With a significant change to the number of Australians who would get the AstraZeneca jab an additional 20 million doses of the Pfizer jab were secured by the Australian government.
That meant there would be 40 million doses of Pfizer delivered by December and 51 million doses of Novavax jab arriving from July onwards once it was approved and 25 million doses under the COVAX scheme.
That was something like 169 million vaccine doses for a country that had a population of 25 million.
There have only been one million Pfizer vaccines delivered to Australia so far.
There was no doubt that the roll out of the vaccine in Australia had suffered a significant setback. How this would play out remained to be seen.
One more thing Friday night it was reported that Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh had passed away. I know a lot of people will have opinions about the Royal Family. I did admire Prince Phillip for his service in World War II and for his sense of service to his wife and family. You can read into that what you will.
When your wife after a lifetime of marriage says you have been her strength and stay throughout all those years – you know you will have done something right.
I was not sure how long it would take for me to get my tests. I had in the past gotten tested first thing in the morning and received a result twelve hours later late in the morning via text but testing numbers were much higher currently.
As it was, at 4:01pm I received a text from Queensland Health advising “Your test for COVID-19 from 02/04/2021 was NEGATIVE.”
I was never really expecting anything else but it was a relief of course.
To me you didn’t wear a mask to protect yourself – you wore it to protect others.
You didn’t get tested because you were paranoid of getting the virus but of passing it on to others.
You didn’t isolate out of fear for your safety but out of concern for the safety of others.
That is why I got tested and that is why I was not going to see anyone over the Easter weekend.
The negative result though did give Karen freedom to go out if she needed to as per health guidelines.
There were no new commmunity cases reported the morning of Good Friday.
April 04
Easter Sunday I was very fortunate, my parents drove over from the other side of town and delivered Karen and I hotboxes of the family Easter lunch. I expected it to be left outside our place but my Dad walked it to our door. We met both wearing masks and I took the box off him.
It was very kind and very delicious.
Hotboxes. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The resulting meal. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
In the news there was talk of the new Brazilian strain which was taking off in places as far away as Canada.
The median age of patients The strain was up to 150 per cent more infectious than the original COVID as opposed to the U.K. strain was up to 70 per cent more infectious.
Here was an earlier report from Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the 23rd of January.
April 06
Tuesday I worked from home, during the day I called the Prince Charles Hospital and was assured that the Fever Clinic would be open when I left after work that night.
So you can imagine my surprise when I arrived to this.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
It was now just after 5pm as I scrambled for another nearby site after work to get tested. If the Prince Charles had correctly informed me that they would be closed then I would have made other arrangements.
I fortunately found a nearby Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology at my local medical centre that was closing at 6pm.
I arrived to a nearly closed centre just in time and the nurse kindly performed the test for me and someone else it appeared.
I received a slightly different text from SNP than the one Queensland Health sends.
At 2:37pm the next day advising ” RESULT: COVID-19 virus NOT DETECTED.”
Outside after the test. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
In the news Tuesday night there was talk a new TransTasman Bubble that had long been touted by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Now it was happening.
I wondered given our recent snap lockdowns what the upside was for New Zealand and while it was not being discussed openly I had to imagine there had to be an economic factor here.
Either way this would be good news for many on both sides of the Tasman sea and one that caused anxiety for others but it was happening either way.
On the 6th of April, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 131,531,981 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 453,834.
There had been 2,859,469 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 6,819.
In New Zealand there had been 2,168 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 17. There had been 26 deaths.
In Papua New Guinea there had been 7,406 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 368. There had been 67 deaths with a daily increase of six.
In Australia there had been 29,357 confirmed cases with a daily increase of nine. There had been 909 deaths.
In Ireland there had been 238,466 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 318. There had been 4,718 deaths. Their recent surge over Christmas well over for now.
In Canada there had been 1,008,106 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,448. Just the day before the country had reached more than 1 million cases with 1,001,658. There had been 23,075 deaths with a daily increase of 25.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,356,334 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2237. There had been 126,862 deaths with a daily increase of 26.
In India there had been 12,686,049 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 96,982! There had been 165,547 with a daily increase of 446.
In Brazil there had been 12,984,956 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 31,359. There had been 331433 deaths with a daily increase of 1,240. As mentioned in a previous post, on March 27th the country had reported their highest number of new daily cases with 100,158. The country recorded its highest daily number of deaths on the 10th of April with 4,249.
In the United States of America30,413,124 with a daily increase of 41,108. There had been 551,769 deaths with a daily increase of 378.
I was back at work, able to go back out in the community, having been able to get tested.
In a few weeks I would a meal with my family having missed them at Easter and even earlier catch up with friends.
Other people had a much worse Easter and no such lovely events in the weeks ahead. I am very lucky.
The entrance to the new COVID Fever Clinic. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
April 01
The first of April was the third day of a three day snap lockdown in the Greater Brisbane region.
It was Thursday and the next day was Good Friday.
The populace waited to have it confirmed that the lockdown would end today.
The number of venues listed from contract tracing had grown significantly.
There was an arguement to be made that had a lockdown be called in the wake of the first case with the PA doctor on the 12th of March that the Byron Bay Bluesfest would have been able to go ahead. That less cases would’ve ended out in the community and travelled as far as Gladstone and Toowoomba.
But case numbers were low as testing numbers had jumped, contract tracing had been ongoing during the lockdown, previous snap lockdowns had seen similar dispersal of the virus far and wide and but ultimately succeeded in their outcome of being a circuit breaker for the disease. There was some anxiety that the lockdown would not end today but if numbers were low this mornign precedent suggested it was likely the Premier would announce it would end.
As you would expect I was working from home.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Pallaszczuk announced in the morning that there were nine new cases in hotel quarantine and only one new case of community transmission and therefore the lockdown would end early at midday today.
As before following the snap lockdown there would be a period of continued restrictions to remain in place until April 15 like mask wearing when indoors and unable to socially distant.
Cafes and restaurants could have patrons dine in but they had to be seated and there was no dancing to be had.
There was a person per 2 square metre rule for businesses and churches to adhere to.
Household gatherings were limited to 30 people.
There would be no visitors allowed at prisons, hospitals, aged care and disability services for the next two weeks.
The two PA clusters now had a total of 20 cases linked to them including the new community case that morning who had been at the Byron Bay Hen’s party.
The Queensland Premier had requested an extension to the end of April in reducing the number of returned travellers returning through the state.
There were 82 active cases in hospital and 68 were returned travellers.
As it got near to the end of my working day an e-mail was sent out at work.
Near where I work is the Toowong village shopping centre where I get my morning coffee from Stellarossa Toowong. Sometimes I pass through the newsagency on my way there.
That newsagent had been listed on the Queensland Health website as a “casual contact” venue for Tuesday the 16th of March between 9:30 to 10am.
I backtracked through my notes.
Had I been working from home in the office on that day?
No I had been in the office.
I usually get a coffee around 9am to 10am.
There had been a meeting that morning.
Was it unlikely that I had been there before 10am.
Yes.
Was it unlikely that I had passed through the newsagency that day given I did not regularly do it on a daily basis.
Yes.
But was it possible….
Yes it was possible and therefore what I did next was a no brainer for me.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
I finished work at 4:30pm and headed to the Prince Charles Hospital Fever Clinic to get tested having just read the e-mail maybe fifteen minutes prior to logging off.
Queensland Health broke venues from contract tracing into two types, one was close contacts and the second was casual contacts.
If you had been to a Close Contact site at the specified time then you needed to get tested immediately and quarantine until you get a negative result.
For those people even once you received a negative test you were to “complete the contact tracing self-assessment” and “stay quarantined even if you get a negative test until 14 days have passed since you were last there. It can take 14 days before you may show symptoms or test positive.”
There were over 1,700 people who would remain in quarantine as a result of this in Queensland over Easter.
Longtime readers will recall this is not the first time I sought out a COVID test or my first visit to the COVID-19 Fever Clinic at the Prince Charles Hospital.
Now on the 1st of April I drove far from the main hospital to the other end of the campus grounds.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
I saw a line of people on chairs in an undercover area outside a building. At the front of it I was checked in by a nurse, I was of course wearing a mask but was instructed to put on a surgical mask and wash my hands. The surgical mask had a blue plastic brim at the top of it where it would be positioned near the nose. It was as flimsy as masks you could buy in pharmacies.
I sat on a chair and waited for my test. I was told I would be called on my mobile. This practice I believe was in place to maybe allow waiting testees to leave and come back so as to keep numbers low at the site during peak testing. There were a few of us seated and waiting but perhaps not as many as there would be during the day or in particular in recent days.
I was there for close to ninety minutes.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
A little over an hour before I got called and answered, a little later I was ushered in and got tested.
In December the nose swab was out but was told this time it was back. I felt they were thorugh but it was not painful. I wandered off into the night.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
I was due to see my parents that Sunday for Easter and there was a good chance I would return a negative test by then and be free to attend to them.
But I though about my parents on a hospital bed, maybe a ventilator, fighting for their lives.
I had just seem them two weeks earlier.
There had been plenty of cases of people who became ill with COVID past the incubation period of 14 days while in isolation.
I was not prepared to take that risk.
I called them and advised I would not be seeing them and then I called work to arrange working from home.
I had a scheduled medical appointment the following Friday and people would be getting their flu shots at work on Thursday.
I rationalised a subsequent test the following tuesday and isolating before then would bring us up to three weeks since the possibility of having been to the newsagency on the 16th of March so that is what I would do.
Below was taken from the Queensland Health website from the 2nd of April just to give you an idea of how easily a potential spread can occur even if a place where there are so few initial cases out in the community.
-Lloyd Marken
CLOSE CONTACTS
Date
Place
Suburb
Arrival time
Departure time
Saturday 20 March
Shinobi Ramen Noodle shop
Westfield Carindale Shopping Centre
Carindale
12pm
2.16pm
Saturday 20 March
Black Hops Brewery
East Brisbane
12pm
2pm
Sunday 21 March
Mamma’s Italian Restaurant
69 Redcliffe Parade
Redcliffe
12.30pm
3.10pm
Saturday 20 March
Green Beacon brewing Co.
Teneriffe
2pm
3.12pm
Saturday 20 March
Eatons Hill Hotel
Eatons Hill
3.44pm
5.30pm
Monday 22 March
PCYC Pine Rivers
Bray Park
7.16am
8.10am
Monday 22 March
KCF Training (gym) New
Birtinya
9.15am
11.30am
Monday 22 March
Plus Fitness New
Minyama
2.30pm
3.30pm
Tuesday 23 March
Plus Fitness New
Minyama
7.30am
8.30am
Tuesday 23 March
Hamilton Hotel Updated
Hamilton
2.20pm
5.23pm
Wednesday 24 March
Oliver’s Real food – Dine in Patrons New
Maryborough West
11.50am
12.09pm
Friday 26 March
FitStop Gym
6/338 Lytton Road
Morningside
6.50am
8am
Friday 26 March
Spinnaker Park Café
222 Alf O’Rourke Drive
Callemondah
10.22am
11.23am
Friday 26 March
Auckland House
60 Flinders Parade
Gladstone Central
7.23pm
9.30pm
Saturday 27 March
Auckland House
60 Flinders Parade
Gladstone Central
7.33am
8.20am
Saturday 27 March
Savour Café
Merthyr Village Shopping Centre
New Farm
10.30am
12.10pm
Monday 29 March
Premium Pilates & Fitness
Coorparoo
9.25am
10.30am
CLOSE CONTACTS INTERSTATE LOCATIONS TO BE REFERRED TO ON THE NSW HEALTH WEBSITE
Byron Bay – Friday 26 March to Sunday 28 March
Suffolk Park – Friday 26 March to Sunday 28 March
Ewingsdale – Sunday 28 March
Ballina – Sunday 28 March
East Ballina – Sunday 28 March
Lennox Head – Sunday 28 March
HISTORICAL CASUAL CONTACTS – OLDER THAN 14 DAYS
Date
Place
Suburb
Arrival time
Departure time
Tuesday 9 – Tuesday 23 March
Princess Alexandra Hospital
5D Outpatients Department (Sexual Health Clinic, Infectious Disease Clinic, Immunology A Clinic)New
Woolloongabba
8.00pm
Tuesday 9 March
11.59pm
Tuesday 23 March
Tuesday 9 – Tuesday 23 March
Princess Alexandra Hospital Ward 5D New
Woolloongabba
8.00pm
Tuesday 9 March
11.59pm
Tuesday 23 March
Wednesday 10 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
1.15pm
2.15pm
Wednesday 10 March
Woolworths
Everton Park
2.30pm
2.40pm
Thursday 11 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
3.30pm
5.00pm
Friday 12 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
3.30pm
5.00pm
Saturday 13 March
Woolworths and Specsavers
Brookside Shopping Centre
Mitchelton
4.00pm
5.00pm
Sunday 14 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
8.30am
10.00am
Monday 15 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
9.00am
10.30am
Tuesday 16 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
4.30pm
5.30pm
Wednesday 17 March
Woolworths
Everton Park
2.30pm
3.00pm
Wednesday 17 March
Studio Pilates
Grange
4.30pm
5.15pm
CASUAL CONTACTS
Date
Place
Suburb
Arrival time
Departure time
Tuesday 16 March
Body Plus Physio
Caboolture
08.30am
08.50am
Tuesday 16 March
Nextra Toowong Village
Toowong
9:30am
10:00am
Tuesday 16 March
Silky Oakes
Strathpine
12pm
12.05pm
Tuesday 16 March
Price Line Pharmacy
Albany Creek
12.30pm
12.40pm
Tuesday 16 March
Grill’d
Eatons Hill
1pm
1.30pm
Tuesday 16 March
Meat at Billy’s
Ashgrove
2:30pm
2:45pm
Wednesday 17 March
Tafe
Southbank
8am
4.30pm
Wednesday 17 March
Woolworths Everton Park
Everton Park
1.39pm
2.13pm
Thursday 18 March
Plus Fitness New
Everton Park
8.00am
9.30am
Thursday 18 March
Milton Fruit Bowl
Milton
9:00am
9:20am
Thursday 18 March
World Gym
North Lakes
9.15am
9.45am
Thursday 18 March
Basil and Vine
Burpengary
10am
10.15am
Thursday 18 March
Giant Chemist
Pacific Fair Shopping Centre New
Broadbeach
1.45pm
2pm
Thursday 18 March
Electric Chair Barber Shop
Everton Park
3.15pm
4.14pm
Thursday 18 March
Studio Pilates New
Grange
4.30pm
5.15pm
Friday 19 March
Plus Fitness New
Everton Park
7.30am
9am
Friday 19 March
Lawnton Country Markets Bakery
Lawnton
6.11am
6.26am
Friday 19 March
Plus Fitness
Everton Park
7.30am
9am
Friday 19 March
Woolworths
Paddington
10am
10:15am
Friday 19 March
Bakers Delight
Paddington
10:15am
10:30am
Friday 19 March
Westfield
North Lakes
11.20am
11.50am
Friday 19 March
Little Red Dumpling
Carseldine
12.10pm
1.16pm
Friday 19 March
Studio Pilates New
Grange
12.15pm
1pm
Friday 19 March
Woolworths
Carseldine
1.10pm
1.20pm
Friday 19 March
Chemist Warehouse New
Windsor
2pm
2.20pm
Friday 19 March
TB’s Wine and Beer
Rosalie
2:30pm
2:45pm
Friday 19 March
Newstead Brewing Co.
Newstead
3.54pm
5.29pm
Friday 19 March
Aldi
Bald Hills
5.10pm
5.18pm
Friday 19 March
Super Cheap Auto
Bald Hills
5.30pm
5.33pm
Friday 19 March
Reef Seafood & Sushi Brisbane
Newstead
5.37pm
6.35pm
Friday 19 March
The Standard Market Company, Gasworks Plaza
76 Skyring Tce
Newstead
6.35pm
6.45pm
Friday 19 March
Public Toilet, Gasworks Plaza
(located to the right of the escalator from the car park)
Newstead
6.46pm
6.47pm
Saturday 20 March
Plus Fitness 24/7 Gym Everton Park
Everton Park
7.40am
8.34am
Saturday 20 March
Coles Everton Park
Everton Plaza Shopping Centre
Everton Park
8.39am
8.44am
Saturday 20 March
Neighbourhood Market Co.
Everton Park
8.45am
8.55am
Saturday 20 March
Westfield Carindale Shopping Centre – any part of the shopping centre
Carindale
12pm
2.16pm
Saturday 20 March
Black Hops Brewery
East Brisbane
2pm
3pm
Saturday 20 March
The Bavarian Eagle Street Pier
Brisbane City
2.15pm
4pm
Saturday 20 March
Market Organics (store only)
190 Enoggera Road
Newmarket
2.45pm
3pm
Saturday 20 March
Riverland Brisbane
Brisbane City
4.10pm
6.32pm
Saturday 20 March
Viscosity
Fortitude Valley
6.42pm
7.31pm
Saturday 20 March
XCargo
Fortitude Valley
7.35pm
9.32pm
Saturday 20 March
Baskins-Robbins
2/489 South Pine Road
Everton Park
9.20pm
9.25pm
Sunday 21 March
The Standard Market Company, Gasworks Plaza
76 Skyring Tce
Newstead
9.50am
10.20am
Sunday 21 March
Presents of Mind
Paddington
10:15am
10:30am
Sunday 21 March
Genki Mart
3/24 South Pine Road
Alderley
10.30am
10.46am
Sunday 21 March
Subway
Strathpine Plaza Shopping Centre
Strathpine
12.50pm
1pm
Sunday 21 March
Burrito Bar Everton Park
Everton Park
3.24pm
3.33pm
Sunday 21 March
Liquorland, Dolphins Central Shopping Centre
Ashmole Road and Klingner Road
Kippa-Ring
4 .40pm
4.50pm
Monday 22 March
Bunnings Rothwell
Cnr Anzac Avenue and Bremner Road
Rothwell
7 .14am
7.27am
Monday 22 March
Café L’avenue
Carseldine
8.51am
8.58am
Monday 22 March
Ashgrove Fresh Fruit Shop
Ashgrove
9:20am
9:30am
Monday 22 March
Zambrero
Aspley
12.05pm
12.34pm
Monday 22 March
Jacobs Bakery
Aspley
12.40pm
12.48pm
Monday 22 March
Bunnings Stafford
450 Stafford Road
Stafford
12.40pm
12.50pm
Monday 22 March
Bunnings
Lawnton
3.15pm
3.30pm
Monday 22 March
Strathpine Plaza Shopping Centre
Strathpine
3.43pm
3.49pm
Monday 22 March
Woolworths Mountain Creek New
Mountain Creek
4.15pm
4.40pm
Tuesday 23 March
Redcliffe Train Line – Kippa-Ring to Lawnton
Kippa Ring to Lawnton
7.00am
8.00am
Tuesday 23 March
Café L’avenue
Carseldine
8am
8.29am
Tuesday 23 March
Woolworths
Paddington
9:10am
9:25am
Tuesday 23 March
Westfield
(Dymocks and Woolworths)
North Lakes
11am
12pm
Tuesday 23 March
Nutrition Warehouse New
Maroochydore
11.15am
11.30am
Tuesday 23 March
Brightwater Medical Centre at
Brightwater Shopping Centre New
Mountain Creek
12pm
12.45pm
Tuesday 23 March
Sushi Train
Carseldine
12pm
12.45pm
Tuesday 23 March
Zambrero
Lawnton
12.51pm
12.55pm
Tuesday 23 March
QML Pathology at
Brightwater Shopping Centre New
Mountain Creek
1pm
1.15pm
Tuesday 23 March
Lawnton Fruit Market
Lawnton
1.57pm
2.05pm
Tuesday 23 March
Redcliffe Train Line – Lawnton to Kippa-Ring
Lawnton to Kippa Ring
2.00pm
3.00pm
Tuesday 23 March
Rosalie Gourmet Market Deli
Rosalie
2:30pm
2:45pm
Tuesday 23 March
Poolwerx Strathpine
Strathpine
3.15pm
3.27pm
Tuesday 23 March
Nellas Gourmet Tucker
Lawnton
3.37pm
3.47pm
Tuesday 23 March
Woolworths
Strathpine
4pm
4.30pm
Tuesday 23 March
Dan Murphy’s
Strathpine
7.26pm
7.36pm
Wednesday 24 March
Tafe
Southbank
8am
4.30pm
Wednesday 24 March
IGA
Milton
9:05am
9:15am
Wednesday 24 March
Milton Fruit Bowl
Milton
9:20am
9:30am
Wednesday 24 March
Redcliffe Train Line – Lawnton to Kippa-Ring
Lawnton to Kippa Ring
2.30pm
3.30pm
Wednesday 24 March
Lawnton Country Markets
Lawnton
2.36pm
2.43pm
Wednesday 24 March
Coles Everton Park
Everton Plaza Shopping Centre
Everton Park
3.24pm
3.33pm
Wednesday 24 March
Uroko Sushi on Train
Everton Park
7.19pm
7.33pm
Thursday 25 March
Café L’avenue
Carseldine
8am
8.29am
Thursday 25 March
Aldi Stafford, Stafford City Shopping Centre
400 Stafford Road
Stafford
8.30am
8.45am
Thursday 25 March
World Gym
North Lakes
8.45am
9.45am
Thursday 25 March
Meats at Billy’s
Ashgrove
9:10am
9:20am
Thursday 25 March
Officeworks
Rothwell
12pm
12.30pm
Thursday 25 March
Café L’avenue
Carseldine
12.34pm
1.34pm
Thursday 25 March
Gin Gin Public Toilet (male) opposite Gin Gin Bakery
Gin Gin
1.25pm
1.26pm
Thursday 25 March
Gin Gin Bakery
41 Mulgrave St
Gin Gin
1.26pm
1.33pm
Thursday 25 March
Westfield
North Lakes
2pm
3pm
Thursday 25 March
Miriam Vale Road Star Roadhouse – male toilet
Miriam Vale
2.35pm
2.45pm
Thursday 25 March
Nundah Respiratory Clinic
1270 Sandgate Road
Nundah
11.15am
11.40am
Thursday 25 March
Oliver’s Real Food – Take away patrons Updated
Maryborough West
11.50am
12.09pm
Thursday 25 March
Cold Rock Ice Creamery
Raby Bay
3.50pm
4pm
Thursday 25 March
Woolworths Cleveland
Cleveland
4.00pm
4.40pm
Thursday 25 March
Redcliffe Train Line – Lawnton to Kippa-Ring
Lawnton to Kippa Ring
5.45pm
6.45pm
Thursday 25 March
BWS – Lawnton Drive
820 Gympie Road
Lawnton
6.15pm
6.30pm
Thursday 25 March
Hanwoori Korean BBQ Restaurant
Brisbane City
6.30pm
7.30pm
Thursday 25 March
Wintergarden carpark
Brisbane City
6.19pm
7.50pm
Thursday 25 March
Ceres Pizza Café
Strathpine
7.00pm
7.58pm
Friday 26 March
World Gym
North Lakes
10am
10.30am
Friday 26 March
Nurse Station café (Patrons)
South Brisbane
10.15am
10.30am
Friday 26 March
SPAR Carina Megafresh
Carina
11.30am
11.45am
Friday 26 March
Coles, Stockland Gladstone
Gladstone Central
12.09pm
12.33pm
Friday 26 March
Woolworths Coorparoo
Coorparoo
12.55pm
1.30pm
Friday 26 March
Niche & Co Café
Tugun
1.40pm
1.55pm
Friday 26 March
Chempro Chemist
Tugun
1.55pm
2.10pm
Friday 26 March
Redcliffe Train Line – Lawnton to Kippa-Ring
Lawnton to Kippa Ring
2.30pm
3.30pm
Friday 26 March
Woolworths Kippa-Ring
272 Anzac Avenue
Kippa-Ring
3pm
3.20pm
Friday 26 March
Stockland Gladstone (including BWS)
Gladstone
4.46pm
5.00pm
Saturday 27 March
IGA Redcliffe
Redcliffe
12.50pm
12.55pm
Saturday 27 March
Sunlit Asian Supermarket
Westfield Garden City
Upper Mount Gravatt
2.30pm
2.45pm
Saturday 27 March
Domino’s Pizza
Greenslopes
3.30pm
3.40pm
Sunday 28 March
7-Eleven
Mackenzie
1.30am
1.40am
Sunday 28 March
52 Espresso
Nobby Beach
6.15am
6.45am
Sunday 28 March
LeanChef Kitchn
Surfers Paradise (Chevron Island)
10am
10.30am
Sunday 28 March
Stable Coffee Kitchen
Tugun
10.27am
10.48am
Sunday 28 March
HOTA Markets
Bundall
10.45am
11.30am
Sunday 28 March
Surf Life Saving Competition
Tugun Beach
12.30pm
2pm
Sunday 28 March
Epic Escape Room
Southport
1.45pm
5.20pm
Sunday 28 March
Kirra Surf Shop
6/8 Creek Street
Coolangatta
2.35pm
3.05pm
Sunday 28 March
Southport Park Shopping Centre
Southport
3pm
4pm
Sunday 28 March
Woolworths
Southport Park
3.14pm
3.35pm
Sunday 28 March
Tugun Supermarket
Tugun
5.20pm
5.30pm
Monday 29 March
Rafiki Café
Mermaid Beach
6.45am
6.50am
LOW RISK CONTACTS
A low risk contact requires you to monitor for symptoms but not immediately quarantine or even get tested. If a symptom occurs then you get tested and ioslate at home until you receive a negative test.
Place
Suburb
Arrival time
Departure time
Tuesday 23 March
Outside Westpac – Peninsula Fair Shopping Centre
272 Anzac Avenue
Wednesday and there was one new case in hotel quarantine in Queensland and only two new community cases and both were linked to recent cases.
The Blues Festival was cancelled in Bryon Bay for the second year running.
A PA nurse and her housemate but she never had contact to a returned traveller from India that she was linked to. This prompted further questions about how the disease might be spreading in the environment of the hospital.
The nurse had gone to hens party in Byron Bay over the weekend with ten people and an eleventh – a male entertainer. The entertainer and six of the ten guests had now tested positive.
The nurse had not worked directly with a returned traveller with COVID that her infection was linked to after genomic testing.
One hundred and fourteen residents and staff at TriCare Mermaid Beach aged care residency on the Gold Coast had been tested and all returned negative results advised federal health minister Greg Hunt. This was following news that a contractor had done work at the facility and later tested positive.
Cases as far travelled as Bryon Bay, Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Gladstone. Two patients with COVID in the Gold Coast University Hospital, one in Toowoomba hospital and one in Bundaberg hospital.
Since the pandemic had started there had been 1,571 cases in Queensland, seven deaths and 2,485,240 tests had been carried out.
There were now 20 active cases in the state.
For the government the indications were if the numbers held the three day lockdown would be enough.
In January Prime Minister Scott Morrison had put forward the goal of having four million vaccinations carried out by the end of March.
On the eve of reaching that timeframe there was bound to be talk of the fact that the target had not been reached – not even close at 670,349 doses admnistered.
There were not even 4 million doses in the country yet which may be the crucial issue. There had been 3.8 million doses ordered to arrive during this timeframe and instead only 700,000 had. We were up to just under 50,000 doses a day.
It was looking highly unlikely an earlier stated goal of everyone receiving their first dose by the end of October would transpire.
Agricultural Minister David Littleproud put some of the problems at the state level when being interviewed on Channel 9 News.
A year on from when the pandemic started to sweep the west. Back then we put into actions and waited to see how the first quarter would play out with our health care systems, our supplies, our economies, our way of live and our loved ones.
There have now been four such quarters. A full game if you and game two in the series had kicked off.
Where will this all end and on many people’s mind is maybe how and when?
How many people will die, lose their jobs and businesses, lose their health and when will this threat be out of our lives completely or at least greatly diminished.
We got the vaccine, this year will reveal if that is a game changer and a temporary or ongoing one. They say doctors live in the future, maybe they know.
I know that I do not.
But I remain grateful for all the good fortune I have been a recipient of, I look to do what little I can to help the less fortunate and to take solace in friends, families, some moments of joy and the idea that deeds however small matter. That if we can help each other and think of each other we will have the means to get through this.
It is not over but the first match in the series is.
As we close it, here is a little update.
On the 31st of March, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported 127,905,155 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 526,819.
There had been 2,798,278 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 9,047.
In Australia there had been 29,296 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 18. There had been 909 deaths.
In the People’s Republic of China where the virus had originated in Wuhan it was reported there had been 102,734 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 19. There had been 4,851 deaths.
In Canada there had been 971,715 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,311. There had been 22,900 deaths with a daily increase of 20. WIth over four million vaccinations Canada was starting to see an uptick in case numbers.
In Iran one of the first countries hit hard by the virus had suffered greatly in subsequent waves over the past year and another wave was coming. There had been 1,875,234 confirmed cases with a daily increase 10,250. There had been 62,569 deaths with a daily increase of 91.
In Poland there had been 2,321,717 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 32,891. There had been 53,045 deaths with a daily increase of 653. The next day they reported 35,253 new cases, their highest recorded daily increase of cases. A week later on April 8 956 deaths were reported in one day, the highest daily record of new deaths due to the virus.
In Colombia there had been 2,389,779 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,049. There had been 63,079 deaths with a daily increase of 124. The population of Colombia was 50 million.
In Germany there had been 2,808,873 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 17,051. There had been 76,342 deaths with a daily increase of 249.
In Spain there had been 3,282,047 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,202. There had been 76,424 deaths with a daily increase of 76. Spain was one of only nine countries that had reported more than 3 million cases at this point.
In Turkey there had been 3,277,880 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 37,303. There had been 31,385 deaths with a daily increase of 155. As you can see above, cases were dramatically on the rise in the country.
In Italy there had been 3,561,012 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 16,055. There had been 108,879 deaths with a daily increase of 529.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,338,385 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,995. Thre had been a dramatic fall in new daily cases but only in the context of the recent devastating wave. In March last year when the virus shook the world, Britain reported 4,262 new daily cases on the 1st of April, 2020 for example. There had been 126,670 deaths with a daily increase of 55. Great Britain was one of only six countries that had reported more than four million cases.
In Russia there had been 4,545,095 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 8,275. There had been no let up in the daily death rates in the the country. There had been 98,850 deaths with a daily increase of 408.
In France there had been 4,510,870 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 29,575. There had been 94,763. deaths with a daily increase of 361. On the 5th of April there would be 66,794 new daily cases. Only one day recorded a higher increase in daily cases in the country and that was 86,794 on the 8th of November 2020.
In India there had been 12,149,335 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 53,480. There had been 162,468 deaths with a daily increase of 354. I am writing this on the 7th of May and the dramatic rise of cases has played out in a tragic way. It had already started here. India, Brazil and the United States of America are the only three countries that have reported more than 10 million cases in the world.
In Brazil there had been 12,573,615 with a daily increase of 38,927. There had been 313,866 deaths with a daily increase of 1,660. On March 27th the country had reported their highest number of new daily cases with 100,158. The country recorded its highest daily number of deaths on the 10th of April with 4,249.
In the United States of America they reached more than 30 million cases with 30,033,063 with a daily increase of 64,599. There had been 545,051 deaths with a daily increase of 621. No country had suffered more than America this past year and new that over 135 million vacccine doses had been dispensed was cause for celebration but the daily new case numbers there were still high.
We were about to find out what protection the vaccine would grant against new strains and a new subsequent wave when it came.
I hoped it would be promising news.
I hope the worst of this is behind us.
It would come to be that that was not the case for India and others.
The lockdown on Monday Night threw a spanner in the works of my plan to reach 100 kilometres by walking on the treadmill at my gym.
So I asked Karen if she would walk with me around our local neighbourhood. I was concerned about recording the distance accurately and covering a lot of distance.
As we walked along I would decide we would go just one more street over, we won’t go here we change direction down there. We won’t stop here, we’ll go up to the petrol station.
I was concerned we were only covering five kilometres the first night but when I went back and went step by step on Google Maps we had covered much more. Karen of course already knew that.
Karen walked with me as I limped along over those two nights. I’m not sure I could have done it without her.
The first night we covered 7.6 kilometres walking for two hours and twenty minutes.
The first night we reached the end of the Kokoda Track.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Karen and I. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
March 30
Tuesday we did the first proper day of the second snap lockdown. I worked from home.
There were eight new locally acquired cases in Brisbane.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital it was announced would go into lockdown.
One linking back to the Doctor from the PA from March 12 that led to a landscaper testing positive on on March 25th and now a nurse who possibly got it from a returned traveller from India but had not had direct contact with the patient. The nurse from the PA and her sister had recently been in Bryon Bay for a Hen’s Party.
The Health Minister advised at the time of these cases not enough health workers had received their full vaccinations.
14,589 peole got tested.
For the first time masks were mandatory across the state.
Mater Mother’s hospital sent home staff, one of the new cases had been to the maternity ward recently.
With cases having travelled as far as Bryon Bay and Gladstone and with a few new daily cases it remained to be seen if the snap lockdown would end on Thursday night on the eve of the Easter weekend.
In Toowoomba one school had shut down since many of its teachers had recently been to Brisbane and were in lockdown. There was one case of COVID in Toowoomba hospital.
On Tuesday night Karen and I walked together again to complete my March On Campaign for the charity Soldier On which helps veterans.
I promised the walk would be shorter than the previous night but it was still 4.4 kilometres covered in 1 hour and twenty five minutes.
I got past my intended goal of 100 killometres with 103 kilometres covered during the month of March.
I would now rest up my hammy and wait for the gyms to re-open.
As we closed out the month, I absolutely couldn’t believe it but $270 had been raised by my donors which was very humbling and good news for our veterans who needed and deserved our help.
There were 6,268 participants in the March On campaign.
They raised $1,549,576 dollars for veterans and covered 483,060 kilometres.
Soldier On, was a not for profit charity founded in 2012 to support veterans by John Bale, Cavin Wilson and Danielle Clout. Bale had been close friends with Lieutenant Michael Fussell who was killed in Afghanistan. Three thousand veterans and their families are supported by the charity with a holistic approach to their physical and mental wounds with employment programs, health and wellbeing services, learning and participation activities.
When I arrived at work Monday morning there was a rumour going around a lockdown was about to be announced.
Sure enough that is exactly what happened, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the Greater Brisbane region (this included Ipswich, Logan, Redlands and Moreton Bay) would enter a three day lockdown starting from 5pm.
Masks were mandatory except in private residencies and vehicles.
You could only leave home for food, work, medical reasons or exercise.
Schools were closed again for children of essential workers.
Cafes and restaurants were shut but could provide take-away.
Two visitors could be allowed in a house.
I had been wondering what the trigger would be and it turned out it was very simple – numbers. Not big numbers but just enough to take action.
In January one new case out in the community had trigged the lockdown.
Now it was four following three previous ones. The PA Doctor from the 12th of March.
Not the landscaper from the 26th of March or his friend on the 27th.
But on the 29th there 10 new cases and four of them – count’em four not one! – were from community transmission.
Two were of an unknown origin and the other two were directly linked to the PA cluster including a brother of one of the earlier cases.
So I I left for a late night session by myself at Chermside cinemas.
I expected not many people to be there but much to my shock there were many people. Hardly near full capacity but easily over half. I limped along with my torn hammy and wondered what the hell I had gotten myself into.
I sat there slowly bubbling with shame as the film continually failed to engage me.
What the fuck was I doing there? How could I be so stupid.
On some level I believed we should be in lockdown so I was directly contradicting myself and for no good reason. I was following the health guidelines but not my own reasoning.
I hadn’t thought this through. Still it was just one case for the moment.
However after I got back home from the gym Karen informed me there was new scare.
One new case had been reported on Saturday following 6,881 tests on Friday.
A friend of the landscaper case from yesterday.
But while that person had been waiting to get test resutls and been told to isolate the man had held a party with 25 people in attendance – apparently!
And I had just gone to the movies with a bunch of people from the local area.
I highly doubted I was at risk but it just felt dumb to have gone. The movie had been far from worth it.
Other Australian states moved to protect themselve from Queensland’s concerns.
Travellers who left with one rules for entering WA landed five hours later to find they needed to go into self quarantine.
At a Australian Football League game the previous night in Geelong supporters of the Brisbane Lions who had travelled to Victoria for the game were told to leave the stadium immediately and get tested and sef isolate by signs around the grounds.
This applied throughout Victoria to all Queenslanders who had been to contract listed sites on the prescribed dates. You only had to isolate until you returned a negative test.
In the Northern Territory it was a similar situation except you had 72 hours to get tested and isolate.
In South Australia anyone from the affected LGAs had to get tested and self isolate.
With 71 active cases in Queensland, it was reported that hospitalisations were as high as they had been at the peak of the pandemic last year. The Queensland government wanted hotel quarantine numbers to be halved in the state.
It is also interesting to watch unbroken press conferences with our leaders.
As other state governments ramped up precautions in light of the news coming out of Brisbane, Queesnland itself did not make any changes.
Why?
Interestingly enough Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called on the federal government to offer aid to north queensland tourism operators as Jobkeeper was coming to an end.
I wondered…
To most of us, it was obvious a lockdown would occur but what would be the trigger?
A new case out in the community for several days had previously done it but… not this time.
Now another new case with a party thrown into the mix and yet still a lockdown was not called.
March 28
On Sunday came news actually that the party well it turned out to just be four housemates. Not twenty five people. This was far from what might have been called in my day a hootenanny.
Questions were asked by journalists but nobody had any clear answers for them and nobody seemed to want to take responsibility except to say that was in the brief and a mistake must have been made.
The Premier, the Chief Health Officer or the Health Minister couldn’t help beyond that.
Mistakes happen I guess, in a way it was nice to see them not just throw some staffer or public servant under the bus but it made me sad to see yet again the narrative of news cycles quickly move on rather than just asking that questions be answered.
With over 11,000 new tests having been carried out the previous day there were three new cases in the state, two from hotel quarantine and one in the community. A brother of one of the new cases.
Without going into details, older parents of friends, family and work collegues and fellow bloggers of a certain age in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States of America had at this point been vaccinated.
Not my parents yet but nonetheless this was wonderful news.
Some of these people had underlying health conditions and it was such a relief to see that they had received vaccinations. It reminded us that maybe progress was getting made.
On the 28th of March, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 126,404,770 confirmed cases gloabally with a daily increase of 594,210.
There had been 2,771,779 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 10,358.
In Australia there had been 29,252 confirmed cases with a daily increase of twelve. There had been 909 deaths.
In Canada there had been 956,655 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,093. There had been 22,826 deaths with a daily increase of 36.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,326,036 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,399. There had been 126,573 deaths with a daily increase of 58.
In India there had been 11,971,624 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 62,714. The next day India would reach 12 million cases with 12,039,644 and a daily increase of 68,020. There had been 161,552 deaths with a daily increase of 312.
In the United States of America there had been 29,859,706 with a daily increase of 71,187. There had been 543,003 deaths with a daily increase of 1,280.
One new case in the Brisbane community got us thinking around the office we might be in for another lockdown in the next few days.
A young landscaper, the man had developed symptoms on Monday and tested positive yesterday.
He had been out in the community for at least five days.
Based on precdent it was becoming highly likely a lockdown was imminent and the Chief Health Officer did not rule it out at the day’s press conference.
Restrictions already in place since last Friday to have no visitors at aged care and disability facilities, hospitals and prisons were due to continue until at least the following Monday.
A list of contract tracing sites were also announced including those at the Carindale Shopping Centre on the southside of twon as well as a host of shops on the northside of town like Newmarket, Everton Park, Alderley, Stafford as far away as Redcliffe.
As what was becoming habit I texted people if I knew any of these places were areas they regularly or semi regularly attended.
In the larger context of what has transpired across the world this rings very true.
Case numbers didn’t dip in European countries earlier this year that hadn’t carried out lockdowns.
The UK that didn’t rush out of lockdown and has been more gradual and did.
In the States with a massive vaccine roll out case numbers have still been remarkably high with 50,000 new cases a day regularly.
In India and Brazil no lockdown and look.
That does not provide all the answers and I don’t claim to be an expert. For example the Indian government moved quickly into a far ranging and significant lockdown when case numbers were still relatively low last year and still sufferred greatly with 10 million cases and thousands of deaths.
No wonder there was a relucatance on the part of some Indians to go into lockdown again.
However a lockdown could hardly supress spread in slums where one bathroom is shared by eighty people.
So no I don’t pretend to have answers but I always go back to the basics. It’s something we can do and if it has a chance of helping its better than looking for ways to not to do it.
Ignoring the risk doesn’t seem to have helped very often – in fact quite the opposite.
In Port Moresby, Papua New Guiea the capital’s hospitals was beyond capacity. Temporary field hospitals were being set up.
Australia and Papua New Guinea have a long history together. For most Australians the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels came to mind. Natives who acted as porter and guides for the Australians on the Kokoda track during World War II. Now could Australia be the angels who supported PNG in their time of crisis?
Australia sent 8,000 vaccines to Port Moresby along with medical equipment that included testing equipment but it was believed this would not be enough.
There were already many Australians there on the ground doing what they could alongside the local Papua New Guinea health care heroes.
The PNG government closed schools and restricted travel but housebound lockdowns were not possible in such a country for all.
On the 26th of March 2021, the World Health Organisation reported in Papua New Guinea there had been 4,965 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 305. There had been 39 deaths.
-Lloyd Marken
ONE YEAR EARLIER: March 26, 2020.
In India Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the country into a 21 day lockdown forcing everybody to isolate at home. The World Health Organisation reported in India there were 649 cases with a daily increase of 43. The number of dead in the country were 13 with a daily increase of three.
Founded in 2012, Soldier On supports 3,000 veterans and their families with a holistic approach to their physical and mental wounds with employment programs, health and wellbeing services, learning and participation activities.
In March they ran a campaign called March On, calling on people to cover 96kms throughout the month to raise funds for the charity.
Having recently dialled back my gym attendance I saw this as a good opportunity to get back in shape and raise funds for our veterans.
I knew I could probably cover about 3-4kms on a treadmill in half an hour. This meant I would have to regularly attend the gym to get to 96kms by the end of the month.
So on the first of March I went and got on the treadmill.
I played on repeat Bill Conti’s Going The Distance theme from the film Rocky. At different points in the music I would move from a walk to a jog to a faster job and back again and repeat for 30 minutes before cooling down for five minutes.
The treadmill told me I covered 4.04 kilometres that night and burned 255 calories in those first 35minutes.
As you get older it becomes mandatory to stretch before you exercise and I made sure I stretched but being out of shape I found my body resistant.
I jogged on Monday the 1st, Wednesday the third and by Thursday my shoulder was in a lot of pain.
From jogging.
I rubbed deep heat throughout the day and pushed myself to go back that night on the fourth.
The whole 96 kilometres loomed over me, I couldn’t afford to miss too many days.
Friday the shoulder continued to bug me but it hurt less.
I went Friday night the fifth and Saturday and Sunday and Monday right through to Thursday.
An unbroken eight day stretch and the shoulder got better, I got fitter too.
I stopped listening to Going the Distance and just listened to regular podcasts from The Ringer while shifting speeds at different timed intervals.
Day 10 I was on track with 33 kilometres done so I upped the distance to cover to 100 kilometres.
I jogged the 12th and 13th but not the 14th. No excuses.
I had a session on the 15th and got to 51kms right on schedule but did not jog the sixteenth.
From there I had a five day unbroken streak from the 17th to the 21st.
On the 18th of March I covered 4.51 kilometres in 36 minutes. Four kilmoetres in 31minutes before starting the cool down late. 299 calories burnt, an average pace of 7.5kms/per hour. The scales put me at 109.3kgs and a BMI of 33.7.
At this point I had been jogging consistently for three weeks.
On the 17th of March I finally got under 110 kgs on the scale for the first time in forever. I started wearing ties at work and swapped out my suspenders for a belt. It made me look like I had gained weight rather than lost it but I knew that belt couldnt’ have been worn comfortably earlier without the hard work so i enjoyed it.
Friday the 19th of March I got to my lowest weight during the month with 109.1kgs and BMI of 33.7.
I was starting to increase the speeds a little to burn a little fat, to cover a little bit more distance but not too much.
Ninety six kilometres was chosen because it was the length of the Kokoda Track and as you went along in your goal different milestones told you how far you had travelled.
Menari 34.8kms. Templeton’s Crossing at 63kms. Eora Creek.72kms.
Templeton’s Crossing is named after Captain Sam Templeton Commander of B Company in the famed 39th Battalion. He was also affectionately known as Uncle Sam by some of the men.
Jack Wilkinson, a fellow soldier, noted the following in his diary in 1942:
“…Two long hills to climb. Missed out on tea as I was with last of the troops. Had a job to get some of them to make it..
‘Uncle Sam’ came back and helped me about half way up the last hill. I was carrying four rifles and three packs and had doubts about making it myself.
But ‘Uncle Sam’ insisted on carrying all my gear as well as that of others. “
Captain Templeton went Missing in Action during the Kokoda campaign. He never returned home. Another casaulty of war.
625 Australians died during the Kokoda Track campaign. The battle saved Australia from invasion.
I reached Templeton’s Crossing on the 21st of March at the end of the five day streak. I was covering consistently 4.4 to 4.5 kilometres now in the same time frame where I had covered a little over 4 on the first night.
I had worked through the initial pain for getting back into exercise. I was now leaner, more fit and faster.
I had to complete seven sessions in the next ten days to reach my goal.
But on Monday the 22nd my left leg was bothering me with soreness. I decided to rest it.
Tuesday the 22nd I came back and did my best session but the left leg was still bothering me.
4.47 kilometres in 35 minutes to score an average pace of 7.7 kilometres per hour and burn 309 calories. I had jogged one minute longer by mistake on the 18th to reach 4.51kilometres.
Thursday the 25th I raised in conversation with a colleague about maybe just walking the rest of the campaign but I had set myself a goal and really wanted to see it through.
Thursday I worked through the pain and jogged but made sure I didn’t push myself. I was back down to 4.32kms, 290 calories, 7.4kph but was grateful to see the scales tip at 109.3kgs having recently chowed down on the Brisbane Powerhouse Snackbar Menu Pizzas.
Friday morning I felt pretty good.
I was getting lunch at a burger joint when my legs got caught in between two chairs.
My body reflexively pulled up to get out of it and I felt my RIGHT leg explode and i let out a yelp.
I limped out with my lunch and back to work.
No matter how gently I walked, the back of my right leg will regularly send this tearing sensation to my brain and I would be unable to take another step for a brief second.
I was in pain.
Having never been an athlete i had no reference for what was happening.
This was more than a pulled muscle.
I struggled back to work but found only standing gave me releif. Sitting down the back of the leg became sore from the pressure and walking constantly agitated it.
I asked a very kind colleague to drive me back to my car and I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to drive it. I pushed the chair back a little which made the leg rest more horizontally than usual and that seemed to not agitate it.
I went to bed with some deep heat and tried to rest it up.
My dream of jogging the whole month was over.
I had 19 kilometres to go in five days and no way I would be able to jog in the next five days.
I was not even sure if I would be able to complete the 100 kilometres.
I was so disappointed.
Because during that month many kind donors some of which remained anonymous had given money for our veterans in the belief that I would reach my goal.
I went back to the gym on Saturday and walked on the treadmill for 50 minutes and covered 4.37kilometres. This would keep me on track to get to 100kms by the end of the month but it was going to be close.
The next night I went back and found the leg was doing okay so I stepped up the walking pace and covered 4.70kms.
As I walked those two nights my leg would seize up but I found I was able to keep going.
On the second night I did seize up at one point quite a bit and my right leg went down. Fortunately I grabbed the handles, shot my left leg to the side off the treadmill and was able to drag my right leg up and keep going.
I haven’t seen a physio but it appears that I tore my hammy.
Why was I doing this you may ask?
There were 6,268 participants in the March On campaign.
They raised $1,549,576 dollars for veterans and covered 483,060 kilometres.
One of them was 102 year old World War II veteran Sgt Bert who walked 159 kilometres in March.
“If I can do it, you can too… so get up off your saddle and March On with me to support our veterans.” said Sgt Bert.
Another was a young veteran named Holly who had been diagnosed with complex PTSD and received help from Soldier On.
“Soldier On provided a safe space for me during some of my darkest times. I am forever grateful for the support I received following my diagnosis of complex-PTSD. Without Soldier On, I’m not sure if I would be here today.” Holly said.
These were words that galvanised me through the month when I felt lazy or tired.
Maybe ego was involved, I was pushing myself and seeing results and admitting to injury would derail all of that. I like to think of myself of someone who rarely sets goals but often sees them through.
But mostly i just wanted to say I did it for all of the people who were supporting our veterans
And for the veterans themselves.
Two people I served with briefly in the Reserves both did March On. One of them had been in the Regs and gone to East TImor.
Two friends I had at school had served.
One was a signaller in the Army and served in the Solomon Islands.
Another went into the RAAF and did two tours of Iraq.
They seem fine but they know as I do that many of our veterans are not fine.
They’re comitting suicide at an alarming rate and Soldier On is helping them as are many of other worthy charities.
For Holly, for Sgt Bert, for Captain Sam Templeton, for all of our veterans I wanted to see this through.
While the British people solemly remembered all that they had lost I paradoxically on the other side of the world I found myself returning to the Brisbane Powerhouse for the first time since March 13, 2020 when I had attended the Brisbane Comedy Festival as the first restrictions were announced in Australia. No more than 500 people at a venue starting Monday the 16th of february.
Now here I was back on the 25th of March, 2021 at the Brisbane Powerhouse.
I saw my GP on Monday the 22nd of March. As we discussing a few recent things to do with my health she mentioned my COVID vaccination.
I advised I was too young but she told me I would come under 1B for an underlying health condition. I asked if she was sure and she was.
I guess I had thought about it but often saw it as something to come down the line.
She told me to keep checking the website, no vaccines were availble at my medical centre yet but they would be soon as part of the 1B roll out.
March 23
I checked with my specialist who treated me for the underlying health condition which was well under control and he gave me the green light for to get the COVID vaccination.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that the third wave currently going through Europe would come to the UK.
Recently case numbers were on the rise and restrictions were coming into place across the continent. Recently several nations had suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Now the President of the European Commission had floated the idea of blocking drugs being exported to the UK which had vaccinated much more of their population.
Throughout most of 2020 the UK had been per capita one of the highest case number and deaths nationally across the globe.
In Britain they paused on the anniversary of their first lockdown and remembered 126,000 of their fellow countrymen and women ahd had passed away in the past year.
Looking at the assembled nurses and ambos and doctors standing in reflection and remembrance of those who were lost.
How many of those deaths had they personally witnessed?
How many lives had they saved?
Had they seen any colleagues fall?
These were our heroes of a battle that still raged on and here they were still standing.
For us.
March 25
The first 800,000 of the locally made AstraZeneca jabs rolled out from CSL. The hope was to produce a million jabs and distribute them per week. This came in the wake of the short suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe having ended a week earlier.
It has to be said it was a great sight to see, the CSL plant was ready to run red hot in getting as many vaccines as possible produced and out in the community or wherever it was needed given a recent break out of cases in Papua New Guinea.
A lot of hard work had already been done to reach this point.
In India cases were on the rise and discovery of new mutant strains. There was a pause of Indian produced AstraZeneca vaccine which could cause problems of getting vaccines to Great Britain and Brazil and countries that would be served through the COVAX scheme.
India itself was looking to ramp up its vaccination scheme with people over 45 to get the jab next month.
In New South Wales a hotel quarantine worker at the Sofitel Hotel tested positive to COVID.
What was noteworthy about the case is the man had already been vaccinated.
Although let’s unpack that a little.
The security guard received his first Pfizer jab on the 2nd of March.
When he tested after most recent shifts March 5th and 6th going into the early hours of the 7th he tested negative after those shifts.
When he returned to work on the Saturday he tested positive.
That’s one jab of Pfizer less than a week earlier when he most likely became infected and the Pfizer jabs works on a basis of two jabs three weeks apart with full effectiveness reached a week after the second jab.
Add to this is the simple fact that medicos are advising particularly with the new strains, vaccinations don’t stop you from getting COVID they stop you from hopefully coming down with a severe case with it.
One hundred and thirty hotel quarantine workers who worked the same shift with the guard on Friday March 12th going into Saturday morning were getting tested and isolating.
Contract tracing was underway for the locations the guard had hit in between his negative and postive test results.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported there had been 136,000 people go through the 14 day hotel quarantine since March 2020.
There had been 5,048 cases in New South Wales during the pandemic.
This case ended a 65 day streak of no new locally acquired cases.
March 16
Speaking of second shots of Pfizer.
Tuesday in Queensland nurse Zoe Park the first receipent of a Pfizer jab in Queensland received her second shot three weeks later along with several other health care workers.
Channel 9 News Australia reported 22,000 of 37,000 health care workers that came under the 1A grouping had received their first shot.
New South Wales had vaccinated 37,000 in the same time period.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath advised the state government was on track to complete 1A vaccinations in a fortnight.
Good news given the PA case.
Four hundred close contacts had been identified from that case and were getting tested. About 58% had come back negative.
Tensions between state and federal government consultation were raised.
There were no answers yet on what caused the outbreak at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.
To our north there was growing concern of rising COVID numbers in Papua New Guinea.
Five hundred recent tests in the country had returned 250 positive results. Of 36 active cases of COVID in Queensland – 18 could be linked back to Papua New Guinea.
The Australian government moved to provide support to their neighbour with $500 million dollars worth of foreign aid.
On the 16th of March, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 2,351 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 82. There had been 26 deaths.
Having only days earlier seen the first AstraZeneca vaccinations take place in Australia, European nations were suspending the roll out of the vaccine.
Italy, Germany and France, Cyprus and Slovenia along suspended its use pending assessment from the European Medicines Agency which were meeting on Thursday.
Spain had suspended use for two weeks.
Earlier Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Austria, Latvia, Sweden, Romania and Bulgaria had stopped using it too.
The side effects cited included blood clots, there had been deaths following vaccinations.
The language of the national leaders struck a tone of precaution but indicated they expected the measure was temporary.
Hospitals in Paris were almost beyond capacity, Italy was in lockdown and there was already a supply issue of getting enough vaccines across Europe that suspending the use of AstraZeneca excaberated.
The European Medicines Agency reported as of March 10, 30 cases of blood clotting had been reported from 5 million Astra Zeneca vaccinations across 30 European countries.
AstraZeneca itself reported out of 17 million vaccinations, 15 events of deep vein thrombosis and 22 evetns of pulomonary embolism.
March 18
Professor Anthony Harnden who was deputy chair of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had some strong words regarding the suspension of AstraZeneca.
You cannot stop and start vaccination programs without losing some public confidence,” he told the ABC.
While Pfizer/BioNTech was a Belgium-American collaboration. The Oxford-AstraZeneca jab was a British-Swiss collaboration.
March 19
The European Medicines Agency report came out and its four main findings were the benefits of getting a vaccine far outweighed the risk of side effects, there is no associated increased risk between the jab and blood clots, no problem with batches or manufacturing but the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots.
Following this out of the 13 countries that suspended the use of AstraZeneca, Italy, France and Germany advised they would resume its use.
Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands said they would start using it again next week.
France and the UK’s Prime Ministers and Slovenia’s President rolled up their sleeves for the AstraZeneca jab to help in restoring confidence in the vaccine following the suspension of its use in Europe.
Places like Hungary and Bosnia were also going into lockdown as case numbers surged. The former had one of the highest vaccination rates in Europe.
On the 20th of March the World Health Organisation reported there had been 122,039,807 confirmed cases globally with a daily incrase of 552,244.
There had been 2,697,760 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 10,509.
In Iceland there had been 6,097 confirmed cases with a daily increase of six. There had been 29 deaths.
In Australia there had been 29,183 with a daily increase of 17. There had been 909 deaths.
In Cyprus there had been 41,475 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 364. There had been 241 deaths.
In Ireland there had been 229,306 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 510. There had been 4,576 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Latvia there had been 96,524 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 622. There had been 1,811 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Denmark there had been 221,455 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 638. There had been 2,397 deaths.
In Slovenia there had been 204,534 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 941. There had been 4,276 deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In Norway there had been 84,553 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,034. There had been 648 deaths.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina there had been 151,337 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,446. There had been 5,773 deaths with a dialy increase of 44.
In Austria there had been 504,693 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,306. There had been 8,795 deaths with a daily increase of 25.
In Canada there had been 922,848 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,609. There had been 22,590 deaths with a daily increase of 36.
In Bulgaria there had been 299,939 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,162. There had been 11,932 deaths with a daily increase of 115.
In the United Kingdom there had been 4,284,547 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,458. THere had been 126,026 deaths with a daily increase of 100.
In Romania there had been 886,752 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,593. THere had been 22,020 deaths with a daily increase of 143.
In Sweden there had been 744,171 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,740. There had been 13,387 deaths with a daily increase of 18.
In the Netherlands there had been 1,186,425 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,355. There had been 16,238 deaths with a daily increase of 45.
In Hungary there had been 560,971 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 11,132. There had been 18,068 deaths with a daily increase of 227.
In Germany there had been 2,645,783 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 16,033. There had been 74,565 deaths with a daily increase of 207.
In Italy there had been 3,332,418 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 25,707. There had been 104,241 deaths with a daily increase of 386.
In France there had been 4,146,171 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 35,066. There had been 91,429 deaths with a daily increase of 267.
In India there had been 11,555,284 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 40,953. There had been 159,558 deaths with a daily increase of 188.
In the United States of America there had been 29,376,388 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 58,826. There had been 534,484 deaths with a daily increase of 1,513.
Most of Europe was not only experiencing surging case numbers but as bad as any their country had ever seen this past winter.
At the Brisbane Comedy Festival, March 13 2020. Copyright Lloyd Marken
March 13
For me it always come back to Friday the 13th of March.
As we entered 2021 there were lots of anniversary milestones.
The first reported case in America, in the UK, in Australia, when restrictions came into place for air travel.
Monday the 16th of March was actually when new restrictions came into place in Australia but it is Friday the 13th that holds the most significance for me when the restrictions were announced.
That whole week things had been brewing.
Schools shut down in France, only food stores and pharmacies were allowed to be open in Italy, the stockmarket crashed, government ministers across the world were testing positive for the virus and the World Health Organisation was declaring a global pandemic.
We knew we were building to something but Friday the ripchord was pulled.
The Formula 1 in Melbourne was cancelled, the Prime Minister announced there would be no mass gatherings of 500 people or more come Monday. How quaint that now seems.
We didn’t know what was to come but we knew it was coming.
Nothing was going to be the same for a while. What would become the new normal? The sooner we found out the sooner the whole population could become comfortable with it.
There was an uncertainty in the air but also a resolve.
Now that things were happening we just knew we had to get on board with it and reassuringly most people’s thoughts turned to others and how to help them.
charities that help Australian veterans like Mates4Mates, Soldier On with patron 101 year old Sgt Bert who is a genuine Rat of Tobruk, and veterans’ families Legacy,
or Medecins Sans Frontieres as they provided medical aid across the world for COVID or disaster relief,
or the charity Headspace that provides mental health support for young people,
or the After School All Stars Program for school children in America that pivoted during COVID to provide food during lockdowns,
or the GoFundMe page BuyThemACoffee organised by Kaylie Smith who raised over $80,000 dollars to provide free coffees for nursing staff across the country,
– the legacy and example of Captain Tom Moore lived on in many acts far and wide.
Money isn’t everything either, whether it was a phone call, a skype, some flowers or a gift, or where possible a visit.
People looked out for each other and buoyed each other’s spirits.
I know I owe a great deal to many calls to my parents and to the humour and kindness of my dear friends and wife.
Just a very specail gift. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Recently a work colleague tracked down a Lego kit from the 1980s, created a package to house it with some kind words on it and handed it over to me.
I think it is one of the best gifts I have ever received.
I don’t like to think about what it might have cost him but the most important thing to me is the thought that went into it and the reason he gave it to me is truly humbling.
I posted my first post about COVID-19 back on the 22nd of April covering events starting the 3rd of March. I eventually caught up with current events and with each post scheduled two days apart I had a whole month of posts scheduled throughout July at the end of June.
Then I went on my secondment and subsequently fell behind.
I’m still playing catch-up.
This will be the 148th post in a row on this topic.
The COVID-19 Diary changed my blog, made it more personal which I need to be vigilant about not doing too much of.
I have written about other things but always in the context of this COVID year.
I probably imagined that I would write about it for at least a year or two but not necessarily at this length.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
During June in the wake of Black Lives Matters and receding COVID numbers I wondered what I would write about next.
I felt more removed from events happening around the world – rather than writing about what was happening to me I was merely curating news.
Then the outbreak from hotel quarantines happened in Victoria and it seems there has always been something ever since including lockdowns and scares in Brisbane.
Also I became aware of the need to write about nice things happening like my holidays, secondments and weddings.
The Polish Place. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Subsequent waves were devastating countries like the U.S. and U.K. and Brazil and now places like India. Just as that first wave was in China all that time ago.
With fellow bloggers and family in those countries they have never been far from my mind as I wrote about the situation in Australia which by comparison made me feel very fortunate.
It seemed a tall order to have our scientists come up with a vaccine in twelve months back at the beginning but they did.
Copyright Lloyd Marken
Being a year on makes you wonder where we will be a year from now.
Hopefully better off.
Hopefully there will be less diary entries.
Hopefully.
I do strongly suspect I will still be writing about COVID to some extent for some time to come.
Last year I saw my family in early March for birthday catch-ups.
I didn’t see my parents again in person for roughly three months. Then not again until November,
Then Christmas.
Then around New Years.
Then March again for the birthdays a year on.
That was nice.
On the 13th of March of 2020 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 138,347confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 9,432.
There had been 5,087 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 362.
On the 13th of March, 2021 the World Health Organisation reported there had been 118,774,981 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 482,705.
There had been 2,637,553 deaths worldwide with a daily increase of 9,548.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in New Zealand there had been 5 confirmed cases with a daily increase The first case reported in the country had been on the 28th of February, 2020. The first recorded death would be on the 29th of March, 2020.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in New Zealand there had been 2,066 confirmed cases with a daily increase of five. There had been 26 deaths.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in India there had been 78 confirmed cases with a daily increase of one. The first recorded cases were five on the 30th of January, 2020. The first death due to COVID-19 was recorded on the 13th of March, 2020.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in India there had been 11,333,728 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 24,882. There had been 158,446 deaths with a daily increase of 140.
On the 13th of March, 2020 with a daily increase of 59 cases the total number in Canada jumped to 152. The first death recorded March 11, remained the only one in the country.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in Canada there had been 899,757 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,018. There had been 22,371 deaths with a daily increase of 36.
On the 13th of March, 2020 there had been 189 cases of COVID-19 in Australia with 49 of those cases reported that day alone. There had been three deaths in my country at that point.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in Australia there had been 29,102 confirmed cases with a daily increase of twelve. There had been 909 deaths.
On the 13th of March, 2020 there were 802 cases in total reported in the United Kingdom. Over a quarter of those had just been reported that day – 208. There were two new deaths leading to a total of 10.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in the United Kingdom there had been 4,247,068 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,759. There had been 125,343 deaths with a daily increase of 175.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in the United States of America there were 277 new cases with a total of 1,264 overall. There were 36 dead, 7 from that day alone.
In the United States of America there had been 29,000,561 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 60,312. There had been 527,068 deaths with a daily increase of 1,570.
In France on the 13th of March, 2020 the World Health Organisation reported an increase from 2,281 to 3,640 in the country. There was a daily increase of 31 dead in the country taking the total of 79.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in France there had been 3,946,733 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 25,120. There had been 89,632 deaths with a daily increase of 290.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in South Korea there had been 7,979 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 110. There had been 67 deaths with a daily increase of one.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in South Korea there had been 95,169 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 490. There had been 1,667 deaths with a daily increase of five.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in Iran there had been 11,368 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,289. There had been 514 deaths with a daily increase of 85.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in Iran there had been 1,731,558 confirmed cases with a a daily increase of 8,088. There had been 61,069 deaths with a daily increase of 53.
In Italy the WHO reported a daily increase of 2,547 cases bringing the national total to 21,157. The death toll increased by 252 taking us to 1,268.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in Italy there had been 3,175,807 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 26,790. There had been 101,564 deaths with a daily increase of 380.
On the 13th of March, 2020 in China there had been 80,991 confirmed cases with a daily increase of eleven. There had been 3,181 deaths with a daily increase of eight.
On the 13th of March, 2021 in China there had been 102,276 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 73. There had been 4,849 deaths. That’s not fuckin true but anyway that is what was reported.
I thank you for following me on this journey, for sharing it with me. It has meant a lot to me to continue writing and to have people who read and comment or offertheir own knowledge. As we continue I hope the journey gets easier and I hope you are there with me.
So standing in a full crowd without masks to go see Triple X as if everything was back to normal sent alarm bells ringing.
We’re never out of this.
Not until everybody has been vacinnated and then how are we are going to get booster jabs to the necessary people in time.
There are many challenges ahead of us but also hope to be taken from the possible – POSSIBLE! – slowing down of the virus’s evolution and what appears to be less hospitalisations and deaths than can be obtained from even our first batch vaccines against new strains even if if eradicating the disease remains a long shot.
Until then.
This thing comes in cycles and when people are ready to let their hair that kind of is when the cycle comes back around.
So it should come as no surprise that comes Friday the 12th of March this was a small scare to come out of the Princess Alexandra hospital.
In the United States of America it was one year on from when the World Health Organisation announced a global pandemic, the NBA suspended its season and the US stockmarket plunged.
“We’ve lost family and friends, we’ve lost businesses and dreams. We’ve lost time.” President Joe Biden solemly noted.
All adult Americans would be elligible to get a vaccine no later than May 1 he promised.
The American President set a goal to have the country be in a different place by the 4th of July.
“Where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus,” he said.
I hope it comes to be so but the new variants will need to dealt with too.
Reassuringly here was a President who would not set dates for a re-opening with no scientific basis but would make goals based on real ground made.
March 13
It was reported that the PA doctor had seen two COVID patients on Wednesday with the UK strain of COVID.
That the doctor had not yet received a vaccine jab as part of the 1A rollout.
The doctor had limited interaction with the community on Thursday but five sites were named.
Throughout the Greater Brisbane area all aged care and disability homes and hospitals were closed to visitors
All inside those places had to wear masks – there was no mask mandate for the greater community.
In January one case of COVID-19 in the community had sparked a three day lockdown.
That case had been out in the community for more than one day and had caught public transport.
This was maybe why there was a different reaction for the moment from the state government.
Maybe there were larger considerations.
THe political capital that is expended from lockdowns, there were parts of the community that believe such actions are showboating and devastate small business. Since January, Jobkeeper was due to end March 28th and Jobseeker payments would be significantly reduced.
I do not know but as time wore on the PA case would remain relevant.
In the United States of America the COVID Relief Bill was signed into law and 100 million vaccine doses had been delivered after 52 days in office.
The Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Anthony Fauci was interviewed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert who spoke of the increasing vaccine rollout and more collaboration between state governments and the federal one.
As Colbert noted there was a sense of hope in the air and Dr Anthony Fauci told him that hope was not misplaced – the main point was when.
Dr Fauci noted cases were plateuing in their decrease and he warned that the plateau was at too high a point. Public health measures he said were still required.
He also spoke about the likelihood of eradicating the virus but he hoped to strike a balance between controlling it and eliminating it.
It was an interesting interview to have with Dr Fauci a year on from the outbreak in the U.S.
He spoke of how the virus spreads in maybe half of cases from people asymptomatic or presyptomatic and that he wished had they known that a year earlier as they would have moved more agressively in shutting things down.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2021/01/01/coronavirus-updates-covid-19-canada-ontario-toronto-gta-jan-1-2021/nsd10197073.jpg)
At the Brisbane Comedy Festival, March 13 2020. Copyright Lloyd Marken
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
