Spotlight on COVID-19 epidemic recovery in the Democratic People's Republic of Coburgistan

Cultural activities in Coburg. Dog-walking, footy, and cricket.

The Coburgistan Bellwether.

Moreland is a nearby Melbourne council (local government area, LGA) that the Pundit knows well and loves dearly, from the delights of Sydney Road with the best cheap Turkish food restaurants in Melbourne, to convenient shopping at Coburg Bunning's north of Bell Street. It's ethically diverse and culturally memorable -- including arthouse movies at Old Pentridge Jail and bird-watching at Merri Creek.

This LGA is a good indicator for any success of Victoria's COVID-19 vaccination drive. State chairman Dan Andrews has strong local support among a diverse mixture of housing and community lifestyles ranging from older western Mediterranean immigrant groups to higher-income professional couples who enjoy East  and  West Brunswick's and Coburg's  "inner city" ambience. Vaccine take-up has been high.

Although there has been a steady stream of local COVID-19 infection, this should soon be controlled by the successful rollout of SARS-CoV2 vaccines, including vaccination of high-school children.

Here is a graphic showing the current status (24th October update) of epidemic control in Moreland:

on this graphic both new COVID-19 cases per day (blue bars) and level of double-dose vaccine injection per 100 persons (orange) among the full resident population are presented.

A quiet hooray for vaccines

Since 8 September there is a trend of modest growth in daily new cases after a surge first week in September. Vaccine coverage has now reached levels of near 50 percent of all people in Moreland where impact on household and community transmission should now be occurring. We are are seeing the clear signs we have passed the peak, which occurred around 9 October when about 35 percent of the population would have been fully protected by immunity. What's very encouraging is the massive increase in vaccine coverage in the last three weeks. With this increasing protective umbrella of immunity to infection we can confidently state the epidemic in Moreland is under control. At last an hooray-- it's been a long wait for family and friends.

The Pundit will update this graphic if the Moreland epidemic control status changes over the next weeks.