Post #244 31 August 2021

Gentlefolk,

This post describes some of our activities during August 2021.

For us, August was dominated by Covid-19. The outbreak in NSW was getting worse and finally the coronavirus reached us in Canberra. On 12 August the ACT Govt announced a one-week lockdown, which was later increased to three weeks (until 2 September). 

So, for most of August we were in lockdown: could only leave our homes for essential medical appointments or shopping, and one hour a day for exercise.  This is what we experienced when we returned from India on 16 March 2020 - "back to the future"!!

Unfortunately gyms and Golf courses shut as part of the lockdown; but other than those relatively minor inconveniences Vera and I had no problems adhering to the restrictions.

The extra time I have had due to lock-down is reflected in the unusual length of this post!

The contents of this post are in the following sequence:

Photos of our activities during August 2021 (followed by TV Series watched, and Books read this month).

Some news items which caught my eye in August 2021 

Tokyo Olympic Games.

International trade.

Performance of top companies/managers.

Ranking of US Presidents.

USA & China: Geography and People

Covid-19 pandemic.

First photos of some of our activities during August 2021.

Oh, what a difference half-a-century makes!
August 1971 (50 years ago) group photo of the Department of  Trade's intake of new Trade Commissioners (aka "Class of '71"). From left (with age in 2021): Alex Olah (75); John Tait (77); Charles Jamieson (77); Frank Ledwidge (78); Alan Jackson (79); Kingsley Barker (77); Roy Skabo (77); Geoff Gray (75); Angus Paltridge (99); Geoff Radinoff (99); Jack White (91); Peter Bergman (80); Lloyd Downey (77); Peter Aboud (77); Michael Johnson (81); David Richard (79); Colin Hook (80); Brian Rowell (89); Chris Davidson (76).
Several are no longer with us, may they Rest in Peace!

Local author Robert Macklin gave a talk to the Australia China Friendship Society on 3 August. He has written 29 books, two of which relate specifially to China: (1) Dragon and Kangaroo, a shared history, and (2) The life and adventures of Morrison of Peking. Mr Macklin has visited China a dozen times and knows the country well. It was an interesting and informative talk.
He lamented the recent dip in bilateral relations, which he blamed partly on the desire of Australia's current leadership to curry favour with President Trump when he was targetting China.
Robert Macklin, a 'Canberra treasure'!

I have joined a U3A group on Current Affairs. We meet for two hours every Wednesday morning. The organiser is former teacher Enid Niven who writes a dozen newsworthy topics on a white board and then moderates the discussion.

A view of the Current Affairs discussion group. About 25 people attend (usually about 10 males, 15 female). Lots of 'grey hair'.  Lively discussion - good fun.

Philip Williams was guest speaker at the AIIA. He retired recently after 40 years as a journalist/correspondent with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He lamented the loss of Australian "soft power" with the diminished role of Radio Australia and TV Australia.

I attended an exhibition by metal-sculptor Allan Burt at a gallery in Canberra.  Allan spent most of his life as a panel-beater, and became an artist after retiring.

My sister, Aniko Carey, with Allan Burt.

Some of Allan's creations.

An afternoon of Egyptian music and belly-dance performances at Smith's Cafe. Got in just before lock-down!

Our favourite walk during lock-down was along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. It is about 8km from our apartment to the Lake and across the two bridges, takes me about 80 minutes. We had some glorious spring days, but then winter returned.
  

Two walkers on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin (masks are mandatory during the current lock-down). Sir Robert Menzies (1894 - 1978) was Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister (total of 18 years, 1939-41 and 1949-66). 

I bought a mat to practice putting durng lock-down, but will anything improve my golf ???

 I've been playing golf seriously for a year now but I swear I'm going backwards. It's a crazy game, but I love it.

Blossoms appearing in our courtyard, Spring is around the corner.

Petrol prices per litre at Costco Canberra at the end of August 2021 (at the end of June they were $1.34 / $1.49 / $1.36)

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TV series

No movies as cinemas are closed during lock-down, but we have been watching a lot of TV, and can recommend the following series (all with English subtitles, except First Ladies which is wives of American Presidents and is in English):

Call my Agent (France, Netflix)

La Garconne (France, SBS)

The Witnesses (Germany, SBS)

Penoza (The Netherlands, SBS)

First Ladies (USA, SBS) I particularly liked the episode on Michelle Obama, having just read her autobiography (see below).

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BOOKS

On the evening of 12 August Canberra went into lock-down to combat a sudden outbreak of Covid 19. These were the first locally transmitted cases in Canberra for more that a year - we have been very lucky - but with increasing numbers of cases in NSW (which surrounds the ACT), it was really just a matter of time before the coronavirus reached us.  But this 'cloud had a silver lining' in that I had plenty of time to catch up on my reading.

The following are details of books I read  in August: Becoming by Michelle Obama; China Panic by David Brophy; The Truth about China by Bill Birtles; Black and White by Richard Williams.

Michelle Obama's autobiography. Her life is like a fairytale: from the ghettos of South Chicago to the White House in Washington DC.
Michelle grew up in a poor part of Chicago, somehow followed her brother to Princeton, then went to Harvard Law School. Got a job in a top legal firm in Chicago, where she mentored Barack Obama during his summer internship. They started dating, and married in October 1992; two daughters Malia in June1998 and Sasha in June 2001.
Barack got into politics and in 2004 was elected as a Senator for Illinois; in 2008 he was selected (over Hillary Clinton) as Democratic Party candidate and beat John McCain in the Presidential Election. At the age of 45 Michelle became 'America's First Lady'.

Michelle says that education is crucial to a child's development; in Primary School Michelle's mother got her transferred to a 'clever' class, which changed her life.

Malia was born June 1998 and Sasha June 2001. Who could have imagined that 8 years later they would be in the White House?

Inauguration Day, 20 January 2009, when Barack aged 48 became the 44th President of the USA and Michelle became 'First Lady'. Sasha stood on a box, to make her more visible!
Michelle admits she doubted her husband's chances: a mixed-race kid from Hawaii and with a weird name, no way!!
Miracles happen.
Michelle was shocked when Trump won  - how could so many American women vote for a self-proclaimed misogynist? And Trump would undo many of the good things for which she and Barack had strived.

The best book I have read on the Australia - China relationship. Sensible and practical analysis. David Brophy is a lecturer in Modern Chinese History at Sydney University.  In this book he tries to explain the growing sense of 'panic' underlying the Australian Govt's view of percieved threats posed by China. 
Brophy traces the panic back to 2017 when President Trump's "America First" policy signaled a diminishing interest in Asia-Pacific. That worried Australian security and defence agencies which determined that strong action against a 'common enemy' was needed to cement our links with the USA. Brophy laments the short-sightedness of this approach and suggests ways to exit the abyss.
 

An entertaining and readable book, although no new "truths" were revealed.
Bill was the ABC Correspondent in China from 2015. He left suddenly in August 2020 at the behest of the Australian Embassy which feared that he might be detained by Chinese Security - perhaps as a quid pro quo for the ASIO raids on four Chinese journalists in Australia in June 2020??? His abrupt departure gave him celebrity status in Australia.
About 30% of the book is on the 2019 'democracy demonstrations' in Hong Kong; other issues he covers are: South China Sea; Rule of Law in China;  trade war initiated by President Trump; and the Covid 19 pandemic. Disappointingly, no new "truths" were revealed!
Bill discusses the deterioration in the bilateral relationship between China and Australia, which he believes started with an ABC expose in June 2017 titled "Power and Influence - how China's Communist Party is infiltrating Australia", He says the 2020 call by Australia for an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid 19 was a 'massive diplomatic misstep' which helped sink the relationship to new lows.
Working as an Australian journalist in China was becoming increasingly difficult as the relationship deteriorated, so he was not unhappy to leave.

The unlikely autobiography of Richard Williams, the father of Venus and Serena Williams two of the best women tennis players ever. According to the book, in 1980 Richard saw on TV that a girl got $40K for winning a tennis tournament. He was immediately smitten - if there was that much money playing a "sissy sport", he wanted in! He taught himself tennis - adopted the "open stance" - and started coaching his two daughters when they turned five ... and the rest is history.
Venus won 23 Grand Slam titles (7 singles, 14 doubles, and 2 mixed doubles) with prize winnings of more than $40 million (not counting sponsorships etc). Her younger sister Serena did even better, winning a total of 39 Grand Slam titles (23 singles, 14 doubles, 2 mixed doubles) with prize winnings of over $90 million and a lot more in sponsorships.

This is the 'blurb' on the back of the book "Black and White - the way I see it" by Richard Williams. The first third of the book describes his youth, growing up in Shreveport a city in NW Louisiana. He describes in graphic detail what it was like being a poor black boy in the American South in the 1940s and 1950s. If only half of what he says is true, it was an awful existence: the grinding poverty, the ever-present racial prejudice, the Klu Klux Klan rampant.
He managed to break the cycle by fleeing to Chicago - where he found almost as much prejudice - and finally to Los Angeles. He claims to have had seveal successful businesses (eg car wash, cleaning/maintenance, security services). In 1980, aged 38, he discovered tennis which became an obsession as a path to riches. He coached his daughters Venus and Serena in the "open stance" style and they became champions (and also good people). His dreams were fulfilled. 

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News items which caught my eye in August 2021.

 

Country	News item
Global	UN Panel IPCC issued a “Code Red” alert with their latest report on Climate Change – the time for action is now!. Wild fires in Turkey, Greece, California, British Columbia. The situation in Afghanistan deteriorated rapidly with the Taliban taking control of the country and entered Kabul (16 August). Chaotic scenes at the airport as Western Nations try to evacuate their nationals and supporters. 26/8 ISIS-K attacked the crowds at Kabul Airport: 170 dead including 13 American soldiers. US retaliated with drone attacks. 31/8 final evacuations by Allied Forces: estimated 123,000 out since July. The 20 year Afghanistan War (2001 – 21) cost at least 3,500 lives of Allied military (2,300 US, 450 UK, 41 Australian, etc) and 64,000 Afghan military (and over 150,000 Afghan civilian deaths). The financial cost is probably over $2 Trillion. The Paralympic Games started in Tokyo on 28 August. 4,400 athletes from 162 countries will compete in 539 events in 22 sports. Champion soccer player Ronaldo will move from Juventus to Manchester United ($38m transfer fee). Lionel Messi moved to Paris St Germain after 21 years with Barcelona during which time he scored 672 goals, won 10 La Liga Titles, and 4 Champion League titles.
USA	President Biden’s ambitious Infrastructure Plan going through Congress. Some major companies, such as Walmart and Disney, have made Covid vaccinations compulsory for employees. US company Square made $29 B take-over offer for Aussie AfterPay. Congressional Commission on the January 6 Insurrection commenced hearings. Pres Biden signed an Executive Order aiming for 50% of new cars to be electric by 2030. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned in face of sexual harassment allegations. Pres Biden announced that booster vaccine shots will be available after 20 September. Tony Finau won the PGA’s opening FedEx Cup game; Aussie Cameron Smith was runner-up (in the third round Smith scored an 11 under par 60, with 11 birdies and 7 pars!). The findings of the report for Pres Biden by US Intelligence Agencies re origins of Covid were inconclusive. Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana and neighboring States.
Australia	The Covid outbreak in NSW started on 18 July. In August NSW went into lockdown, first Greater Sydney and then Regional NSW as well. Victoria followed, and then the ACT. The daily number of new cases in NSW started escalating (825 new cases on 21 August). Anti-lockdown demonstrations in Melbourne and Sydney. Some major companies, such as SPC and Qantas, have made Covid vaccinations compulsory for employees. The Govt said that all workers in Health and Aged Care must be vaccinated by 15 September. Brian Henderson, well-known TV personality (News, Bandstand), died aged 89. Australian Cricket team was all out for just 62 runs in T20 contest against Bangladesh played in Dacca (BD won the series 4 – 1). On the back of high iron ore prices, mining giant BHP announced a profit of $26 Billion for Financial Year 2020-21.
China	One year since Chinese-Australian TV host Cheng Lei was detained on “national security” grounds; in Australia 50 journalists signed open letter seeking her release. The Covid (Delta variant) which started in Nanjing in July has been contained, with no new local cases reported since 24 August. Chinese Govt promoting the concept of “Common Prosperity” by the redistribution of wealth from rich to poorer segments of society. New restrictions aimed at dampening the rise in property prices. China introduced new regulations restricting: celebrity fan culture; private tutoring; and online gaming (strict limits on how long a child can spend playing online computer games). Imports of frozen beef in April were $68m from the USA and $80m from Australia, but in May $90m from US and only $47m from Australia; seems the USA is gaining market share at Australia's expense.
Canada	PM Trudeau called a general election for 20 September (2 years early). The Govt decreed all Canadian Civil Servants should be vaccinated by end-October.

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Tokyo Olympic Games, 23 July - 8 August 2021

The big international event in July/August was the Tokyo Olympic Games. They were still offically billed as the "2020 Olympics", which were postponed for a year due to the Covid pandemic.

Japan did a marvellous job holding the Olympics, which ran like clock-work despite many issues.  Unfortunately, because of growing Covid cases in Tokyo, the decision was made not to allow any spectators (other than accredited athletes and officials) at the venues.

The following Table shows the Top Fifteen Medal countries. The traditional ranking is by number of Gold Medals won (left-hand column), but I think Total Medals won is a better indicator.  Even better is "Medals per population" (right hand column); on that basis the top four countries in this Table would be: New Zealand, The Netherlands, Hungary, and Australia.

Regardless of result, I think all the participants in the Olynpics are champions in their own right.  Well done, everyone!!!

Tokyo Olympics final Medal Table, top 15 countries ranked by number of gold medals.

23 July – 8 August 2021

(Source: www.medalspercapita.com accessed 11 August 2021)

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total medals	Medals per population
1. USA	39	41	33	113	59th
2. China	38	32	18	88	78th
3. Japan	27	14	17	58	46th
4. Great Britain	22	21	22	65	26th
5. ROC Russia	20	28	23	71	41st
6. Australia	17	7	22	46	14th
7. Netherlands	10	12	14	36	9th
8. France	10	12	11	33	40th
9. Germany	10	11	16	37	47th
10. Italy	10	10	20	40	35th
11. Canada	7	6	11	24	36th
12. Brazil	7	6	8	21	72nd
13. NZ	7	6	7	20	5th
14. Cuba	7	3	5	15	19th
15. Hungary	6	7	7	20	10th

 

I was intrigued, and amazed, to read that 8 participants were aged over 45. Age is but a number!!!

Competitors aged over 45 at Tokyo Olympic Games.

Gender	Age	Name	Country	Sport
Female	66	Mary Hanna	Australia	Equestrian
Male	62	Andrew Hoy	Australia	Equestrian
Male	59	Santiago Raul Lange	Argentina	Sailing
Female	58	Xia Lian Ni	Luxembourg	Table Tennis
Female	52	Nino Salukvadze	Georgia	Shooting
Female	52	Isabell Werth	Germany	Equestrian
Female	46	Oksana Chusovitina	Uzbekistan	Gymnastics
Male	46	Rune Glifberg	Denmark	Skateboarding

 The oldest successful athlete in modern Olympic history was Swedish shooter Oscar Swan, who was 72 years old when he won a silver medal at the 1920 Games in Antwerp.

At 62 Andrew Hoy became Australia’s oldest Olympic medallist, winning Silver as part of the equestrian eventing team and Bronze in the individual event.

Isabell Werth, 52, has won 7 Gold medals in Equestrian Dressage (either individual or team) in six Olympics, including in Tokyo.

Vera and I watched a lot of the Olympics over the two weeks – many, many wonderful performances – the following caught my eye.

Some highlights of Tokyo Olympic Games (for me).

High Jump	Tambari (Italy) and Barshim (Qatar) shared Gold.
Soccer	Aussie Women’s soccer team, The Matildas, were beaten by Sweden in the Semi-Finals. Canada beat Sweden for Gold. The USA beat us for Bronze.
BMX	Aussie Logan Martin won BMX freestyle Gold.
Skateboarding	Japanese Momiji Nishiya (13 years old) won Gold in Women’s street skateboarding. Aussie Keegan Palmer (18 years old) won Gold.
Gymnastics	Simone Biles, champion US gymnast, withdrew due to ‘twisties’; later returned and ended with Silver and Bronze medals.
Equestrian	Isabell Werth (F 52, Germany) won Gold in Dressage (her 7th Gold Medal in 6 Olympic Games). Andrew Hoy (M 62, Australia) won Silver (Team) and Bronze (individual) Medals.
Swimming	Aussie swimmer Emma McKeon won 4 Golds.
Diving	Quan Hong Chan (China) won the 10m platform (she was 14 but looked about 10!); Melissa Wu (Australia) won Bronze.
Running	Italian Lamont Jacobs won the 100m sprint in 9.8 sec (he only took up sprinting 3 years ago!). Chinese sprinter Su Bing Tian was the first Asian in 9 decades to make the 100m Final. Aussie-Sudanese Peter Bol came 4th in the 800 m. Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the Men’s 1,500 m in 3m28s. Women’s 10,000 m was won by Hassan (Netherlands) in 29m55s. Men’s marathon was won by Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) in 2h8m38s.
Decathlon	Aussie Ashley Moloney (21 years old) got Bronze in the Decathlon.
Basketball	Aussie Men’s Basketball Team, The Boomers, beat Slovenia 107 – 93 to win Bronze (Canberran Patty Mills, point guard 185cm, 82kg, scored 42 points; he has just signed a 2 year $16m contract with the Brooklyn Nets).
Golf	Nelly Korda (USA) won Women’s Golf Gold.  Exciting finish, Nelly led all the way, but just hung on to win. She is the daughter of Petr Korda who won the Australian Tennis Open in 1998.

 

Olympic Medals - Did you know?

Gold medals are actually gold-plated silver , weigh 556 grams.

Silver medals are pure silver, weigh 550 grams.

Bronze medals are 95% copper and 5% zinc, weigh 450 grams. 

Aussie winners get: $20K for a Gold Medal, $15K for Silver, and $10K for Bronze. 

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INTERNATIONAL TRADE

My 30 year career as an Australian Trade Commissioner gave me an interest in matters related to international trade.  I subscribe to Bloomberg's excellent daily newsletter "Supply Lines - tracking Covid-19's impact on trade" (former title 'Trade Matters').  

The coronavirus pandemic had a big impact on countries' economies and on international trade, which is now rebounding.  

Here are some of the more interesting graphs in the Bloomberg newsletter during August 2021; they are largely self-explanatory.

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Performance of top companies/managers

I saw this interesting table in The Economist on 27 August 2021, celebrating Tim Cook's decade leading Apple. 

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Ranking of US Presidents

Every four years cable network C-SPAN (which reports on Congress) organizes a survey of  American Presidents. This year 142 historians and political scientists rated the 45 past Presidents on 10 criteria: public persuasion; crisis leadership; economic management; moral authority; international relations; administrative skills; relations with Congress; vision; equal justice for all; and performance in the context of the times.

The following Table shows the Top Ten Presidents in 2021, and also their ranking in the 2020 C-SPAN survey (right hand column). 

 

C-SPAN Ranking in 2021	President	C-SPAN Ranking in 2000
#1	Abraham Lincoln (16th President)	#1
#2	George Washington (1st)	#3
#3	Franklin D Roosevelt (32nd)	#2
#4	Theodore Roosevelt (26th)	#4
#5	Dwight D Eisenhower (34th)	#9
#6	Harry S Truman (33rd)	#5
#7	Thomas Jefferson (3rd)	#7
#8	John F Kennedy (35th)	#8
#9	Ronald Reagan (40th)	#11
#10	Barack Obama (44th)	NA
#41	Donald Trump (45th)	NA

 

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USA and China: key indicators

I wanted to see how the two superpowers compared so compiled the following Table based on statistics sourced from the CIA World Factbook https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/ accessed on 19 August 2021 (you can see I have too much time during lock-down!!!).

In future posts I will include Tables comparing the USA and China on other key indicators.

USA & China: Geography and People & Society

Source: CIA World Factbook, accessed 19 August 2021

All $ are US dollars; est. = estimate

	USA	China
GEOGRAPHY
Area, total, of which ·       Land ·       Water	9.83 M sq km 9.15 M sq km 0.68 M sq km	9.6 Million sq km 9.33 M sq km 0.27 M sq km
Land borders ·       Number of neighbors	12,002 km 2	22,457 km 14
Coastline	19.924 km	14,500 km
PEOPLE & SOCIETY
Race	Mainly Caucasian	Asian
Ethnic groups	White 56.1% Hispanic 16.3% Black 12.6% Asian 4.8% Other 10.2%	Han 92% 55 minorities 8%
Total population (July 2021 est.)	335 Million	1,398 Million
Age structure: ·       0 - 14 years ·       15 – 64 years ·       65+ years	19% 64% 17%	17% 71% 12%
Median age (2020 est.)	38.5 years	38.4 years
Sex ratio, total population (2020 est.)	0.97 male/female	1.06 male/female
Population growth rate, annual (2021 est.)	0.7%	0.26%
Net migration rate, annual (2021 est.)	3.03 / 1000 pop.	0.43 / 1000 pop.
Urban population (2021 est.) ·       Rate of urbanization, annual	82.9% 0.96%	62.5% 1.78%
Unemployment rate (2018 est.)	3.9%	3.6% (urban)
Population below the poverty line (2010)	15.1%	0.6%
GINI Index Coefficient (ranks income inequality; the higher the GINI Coefficient the more unequal the income distribution) (2016 est.) ·       World ranking	41.1       54 of 174 countries	38,5       73 of 174 countries
Obesity, adult prevalence rate (2016 est.) ·       World ranking	36.2% 12th of 192 countries	6.2% 169th  of 192 countries
Life expectancy at birth, total (2021 est.) ·       Male ·       Female	80.4 years 78.2 years 82.3 years	76.3 years 74.2 years 78.6 years
Literacy rate (2018 est.)	99%	96.8%
Religion, top groupings (2014 est.)	Protestant 47% Catholic 21% Jewish 1.9% Mormon 1.6% Unaffiliated 23%	Folk 22% Buddhist 18% Christian 5% Muslim 2% Unaffiliated 52%

 

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COVID 19 pandemic

Global cases of Covid 19 increased by 20 million in August. Of the Top 15 countries (see Table below), the USA had the biggest increase (4.3 million). President Biden has pushed the vaccination rate in America but the Delta variant is highly contagious. At least people who have been vaccinated are less likely to get very sick.

Covid-19 Pandemic top 15 countries by cumulative cases, as at 31 August 2021.

Source: www.worldometers.info/coronavirus (accessed 31 August 2021)

Country	Cumulative Cases 31 July 2021   (millions)	Cumulative deaths 31 July  2021 (thousands)	Cumulative Cases 31 Aug 2021   (millions)	Cumulative deaths 31 Aug 2021 (thousands)
Global	198M	4.2M	218M	4.5M
1. USA	35.7	629	40.0	656
2. India	31.6	424	32.8	439
3. Brazil	19.9	556	20.8	580
4. Russia	6.2	121	6.9	182
5. UK	5.8	130	6.8	133
6. France	6.1	112	6.8	114
7. Turkey	5.7	47	6.4	57
8. Argentina	4.9	106	5.2	112
9. Iran	3.9	90	5.0	107
10. Colombia	4.8	120	4.9	125
11. Spain	4.5	82	4.9	84
12. Italy	4.3	128	4.5	128
13. Indonesia	3.4	92	4.1	133
14. Germany	3.8	92	4.0	93
15. Mexico			3.3	259
120. Australia			54K	1K

 

 The current outbreak in Australia started in Sydney / NSW (Austraia's most populous State) in June, and it spread to other States. Despite lockdowns, the numbers in NSW have been edging up: yesterday 1,164 new cases were reported. Currently there are 871 patients in NSW hospitals of whom 143 are in intensive care and 58 require ventialtion.

Victoria recorded 76 new cases yesterday.

ACT (Canberra) recorded 13 new cases yesterday, The Canberra Govt announced today that our lock-down (with some relaxations) will be extended by 2 weeks, until 17 September. Any visitors must quarantine for 14 days.

Since the pandemic started in early 2020, Australia has had a total of 53,856 cumulative cases of Covid-19, and 1,006 cumulative deaths. The numbers must seem incredibly small to Europeans and Americans. We have been very fortunate in keeping the numbers small, and are keen to keep it that way.

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That's it for this post.

Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Vera & Alex Olah

Canberra, Australia

Tuesday 31 August 2021