Worldwide (
Map)
February 11, 2021 – 107,324,00 confirmed infections; 2,354,000 deaths
January 6 – 87,157,000 confirmed infections; 1,882,100 deaths
December 3 – 64,469,710 confirmed infections; 1,492,100 deaths
US (
Map)
February 11, 2021 – 27,285,150 confirmed infections; 471,450 deaths
January 6 – 21,294,100 confirmed infections; 361,100 deaths
December 3 – 13,920,000 confirmed infections; 273,370 deaths
SA (
Coronavirus portal)
February 11, 2021 – 1,482,412 confirmed infections; 47,145 deaths
January 6 – 1,150,000 confirmed infections; 30,525 deaths
December 3 – 796,475 confirmed infections; 21,710 deaths
News blues…
Is the pandemic in tenuous retreat?
New COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all dropped this week.
The good news in COVID-19 data continued this week, as new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all dropped. For the seven-day period running January 28 to February 3, weekly new cases were down more than 16 percent over the previous week, and dropped below 1 million for the first time since the week of November 5. This is still an astonishing number of new cases a week, but far better than the nearly 1.8 million cases reported the week of January 14. Tests also declined nationally, but by less than 3 percent, nowhere near enough to explain the steep drop in cases.
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The state has identified two cases of the variant, Newsom said: one in Alameda County and one in Santa Clara County, both of which are part of the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
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President Ramaphosa addresses the nation tonight at 7pm. Afterwards,
Unpack the SoNA – a webinar Healthy planet, anyone?
The world’s most commonly used family of pesticides, developed in the 1990s as a “safer” alternative, may be harming mammals, too. Bees, essential for crop pollination, have been especially hard hit by neonics—and the EU has banned the outdoor use of three popular types. Exposure to neonics “reduces sperm production and increases abortions and skeletal abnormalities in rats; suppresses the immune response of mice and the sexual function of Italian male wall lizards; impairs mobility of tadpoles; increases miscarriage and premature birth in rabbits; and reduces survival of red-legged partridges, both adults and chicks,”
Elizabeth Royte writes for Nat Geo. Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Yesterday morning, 8:30am, a trio of potential buyers and the realtor came by the house for a third visit with a view to purchase. They lined up their vehicles next to the carport.
At 9:15am three more people in two more small trucks arrived to carry off two large chest freezers I’d sold.
After all visitors completed a series of vehicle moves to allow the trucks access to load the freezers, yet another visitor arrived. He’d dropped by unexpectedly after I’d texted him asking for advice on what to with what seems like miles of tangled electrical cable.
An electricity expert, the third visitor reminded me a key ingredient in electrical cable is copper, much sought after and sells well. (It is, after all, what thieves risk their lives for when they steal Eskom cabling from live overhead transmission lines.)
Note on Eskom: I received my first Eskom newsletter and it explains how “non payment” is a serious threat to the business and that “payment for services is a universal principle, and by ensuring that everyone pays for electricity, Eskom could ensure the future electricity tariffs are kept as low as possible.”
From 2017 to 2020, Eskom incurred costs to the value of as much as R188m related to theft, illegal connections, and vandalism of the electricity network.
The cost over the last three years was R53m at March 2018, R64m at March last year and R71m as at the end of March. This excludes the loss of revenue.
No company can sustain this kind of financial damage. Nevertheless, it doesn’t help that the company’s communications via app regarding load shedding is so confusing. One minute a notice comes regarding an imminent 2.5 hour period without power, next minute the opposite information arrives: “load shedding suspended.”
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Driving to visit my mother, driving back to ensure the house is secure, packing up stuff to sell, driving to the recycling center, charity shop, and scrap yard, and placing goods on the lawn for passersby to take (the best way to recycle), seeking and not finding the right fitting for the hose pipe to connect to the power washer to clean the large rug the dog pissed on….
and trying to fit in exercise (walking and swimming) to ensure I’m not injured by some small but necessary task…. I am exhausted.
The good news? My mother continues to improve although she’s still very weak.
I'm optimistic. If - when? - a cash offer is made on the house, the future becomes clearer, a path forward becomes smoother, and it'll become easier to invest gobs for energy into what currently feel like overwhelmingly stupid but vital tasks (such as washing dog piss off a rug.)
Sell house, sell!
