November 2, 2021
Australia among countries proposed for Bali flights + PCR flight test scrapped + Sinovac approved for kids aged 6 and over + more
Good morning!
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With the island reopening to visitors and the success of the government’s vaccination program, we here at The Bali Beat are happy to mark this new era by including a Local Events section in the newsletter. Starting next week, in the Monday, November 8 issue, we’ll be making space for up to 5 announcements per day from businesses and community organizations that want to let readers know what they’ve got going on.
This is, by far, the single most requested feature for the newsletter, but we don’t want to clutter the reading experience, so these announcements will be limited in length — no more than 100 characters — and they will run after the “Of Interest” stories. Also, as a way to support the reopening efforts, for the first two weeks we’re making these listings available for free on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information and to get your event included, please click here.
Weather & Tides
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Meteorology, Climatology & Geophysics Council (Link)
Tide table from Tide-forecast.com.
Daily Covid Update
National Figures
Local Figures
The Big News
“Ministry Proposes Adding Australia, Denmark, Austria and Others to Invite List” from Kompas (Indonesian): Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno said international flights to Bali remained at nil on Monday. Nevertheless, he explained that his party continues to make various necessary preparations, one of which is to continue to intensify promotions to 19 targeted countries. "Hopefully, with 19 countries that have been given approval, we can get better feedback and we have also proposed countries with low positivity rates and can begin to consider opening direct flights," he said. Sandiaga said that eight countries were proposed to be included in the list of approved countries, including Austria, Australia and Denmark.
Context: Other countries mentioned by Minister Sandiaga Uno included England, Switzerland, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands. In related news, Thailand opened yesterday and is claiming 7,000 tourists or 2,300 foreigners and 700 Thai nationals arrived (depending on which news website you read).
“PCR Test Requirement for Air Passengers Scrapped” from The Jakarta Globe: Air passengers will no longer be required to undergo the PCR test for Covid-19, a senior minister said on Monday. “Air travels across Java and Bali no longer require a PCR test, but passengers still need to undergo antigen tests,” Muhadjir Effendy, the coordinating minister for human development and culture, said. Passengers are also required to show proof that they have taken at least a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. There have been growing protests among Indonesian airlines and passengers against the PCR test requirement because it’s both costly and slow in delivering a result. The number of domestic air passengers soared by 84% to 2 million in September when the government began to ease travel restrictions, in comparison to the previous month, the Central Statistics Agency announced on Monday.
Context: It is not clear when this latest regulation will be put in action (Indonesian).
“Indonesia Approves Sinovac for Children Aged Six and Over” from The Jakarta Globe: The Indonesian Drug and Food Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has issued emergency use authorization of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by Sinovac Biotech for children as young as six years old. BPOM head Penny Lukito said on Monday the approval was granted following successful clinical trials Phase 1 and 2 which focused on safety and immunogenicity – the ability of the vaccine to trigger an immune response among children. “The immunogenicity demonstrated during the trials was in high percentage -- 96%. As for the efficacy rate, we referred to results from previous clinical trials,” Penny said. The Sinovac vaccine was the first to get Indonesian approval for use among children, previously limited to those aged 12 and above.
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Other Headlines
“Night Clubs in Bali Asked to Create an Internal COVID-19 Task Force” from Kumparan (Indonesian): Head of the Bali Province Civil Service Police Unit, I Dewa Nyoman Rai Dharmadi, stated that currently there is no prohibition on holding parties at nightclubs on Bali. "The important thing is that it must comply with the provisions of the health protocol rules, what's the difference with dinner, it's the same right, that's the important thing about the health protocol. It's part of the business, it just shouldn't exceed capacity," he explained at the DPRD Building, Monday. His party has held meetings with the management of several nightclubs to discuss the implementation of health protocols, as well as the visiting capacity of each nightclub. "So while we see it seems crowded, but the contents are not up to 100%, it's still far below 70%, it seems crowded, because we've seen the number of visitors for a long time," he said.
Vaccination Update
“Indonesia Authorizes Novavax Vaccine” from The New York Times (Metered Paywall): Novavax announced Monday it had won emergency authorization for its vaccine in Indonesia. After months of production delays, this is the first authorization for Novavax and its manufacturing partner, the Serum Institute of India. In clinical trials in the United States and elsewhere, Novavax’s vaccine proved highly effective. Indonesia initially began vaccinating its citizens with vaccines from China, but a bout of breakthrough infections among health care workers raised concerns that their immunity had waned quickly. The country subsequently made deals to secure doses from Novavax, as well as Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Moderna. So far, only 43% of people in Indonesia have received at least one dose, while almost 27% are fully vaccinated. Winning authorization in Indonesia will not on its own enable Novavax to live up to its promises to Covax. Covax accepts vaccines that have won authorization from the WHO or a country that it recognizes as having stringent regulations. Indonesia is not on that list.
Context: As of yesterday, 57.59% of people in Indonesia had received one vaccine dose and 35.51% were fully vaccinated.
More ...
Nation: “IDAI Urges Parents to Get Children Vaccinated” from Antara
Nation: “Ministry Aims for 100% Vaccination Rate by Year-end” from Antara
Nation: “Second Vaccine Coverage to Reach 60% by Year-end” from Antara
Health Protocols (Prokes) & Health Services
“Indonesian Researchers Breed 'good' Mosquitoes to Combat Dengue” from Reuters: Researchers in Indonesia have found a way to fight disease-bearing mosquitoes by breeding a species of the insect which carries a kind of bacteria that prevents viruses like dengue from growing inside them. Wolbachia is a common bacteria that occurs naturally in 60% of insect species, including some mosquitoes, fruit flies, moths, dragonflies and butterflies. It is not, however, found in dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. "In principle we are breeding the 'good' mosquitoes," said Purwanti, a World Mosquito Program (WMP) community cadre. "The mosquitoes carrying dengue will mate with mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, which will produce Wolbachia mosquitoes. So even if they bite people, it won't affect them". Since 2017, a joint study has been releasing lab-bred Wolbachia mosquitoes across a few dengue fever 'red zones' in Yogyakarta. The trial results showed that deploying mosquitoes with Wolbachia reduced dengue cases by as much as 77% and hospitalisations by up to 86%.
More...
Nation: “Need to Prevent Year-end Infection Spike” from Antara
Nation: “VP Warns of New Covid-19 Variants, Year-end Infection Spike” from Antara
Province: “Police Arrest Three PCR Counterfeiters at Ngurah Rai Airport” from Antara Bali (Indonesian)
Economy & Infrastructure
“Tourism Minister Calls for Efforts to Salvage Garuda Indonesia” from Tempo: Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno on Monday said urgent steps are needed to save flag-carrier Garuda Indonesia from an economic downfall. He added the company could only be saved by introducing thorough business restructuring. “We should collectively back the restructuring plan since Garuda is a national flag carrier. We must do anything to save Garuda,” said the Tourism Minister on Monday. One of the “rescue strategies” Sandiaga referred to is introducing the concept of good corporate governance into the carrier.
More ...
Nation: “NTB Rice Production Increases 8.92%” from Bisnis Bali (Indonesian)
Nation: “QRIS Merchants in Bali Are Dominated by Micro-scale Businesses” from Antara Bali (Indonesian)
Nation: “Indonesia's Banking Industry Eyes Higher Loan Growth Next Year” from The Jakarta Post (Metered Paywall)
Education
“Three Gianyar Students in a Trance, Face-to-face Learning Stopped” from iNews Bali (Indonesian): The atmosphere of face-to-face learning at Singamadawa Vocational School, Selat Village, Samplangan Village, Gianyar Regency got excited on Monday, when three students fell into a trance. The school sent the students home to avoid unwanted things from happening. After being sent home, suddenly a student fell into a trance and was brought back to school, after which prayers were held in the school temple. The school plans to carry out a cleansing ceremony to plead that the trance incident does not happen again. Apparently this kind of trance has repeatedly occurred at Singamadawa Vocational High School.
Bali Reopening
“Bali Government Asks for Quarantine Period to be Reduced to 3 Days” from Detik (Indonesian): The Bali Provincial Government proposed that there be a reduction in the quarantine period for foreign tourists to Bali. The proposal was submitted to the central government because some of Bali's competitors have not quarantined foreign tourists. "We have often conveyed (the proposal to reduce the quarantine period) in webinars, we give descriptions of other countries and even impose zero quarantine, this is a big rival for us," said Deputy Governor of Bali Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, on Monday. "We have conveyed it and the answer is still being evaluated because several variants entered Indonesia, Mu and so on," added Cok Ace. "We are trying to (reduce the quarantine period for foreign tourists), if possible, from 5 to 3 days later, because our competitors outside even have zero quarantine," explained Cok Ace.
More...
“Tighten Covid-19 Screening for Foreign Travelers: VP” from Antara
“Bali Boosts Tourism Through Indonesian Basketball League” from Suara Bali (Indonesian)
“Dispar Denpasar Trains Ecotourism Guides” from Antara Bali (Indonesian)
“Dozens of Primate Species in Indonesia Threatened With Extinction Due to Climate Change” from Bali Post (Indonesian)
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Of Interest
“Four Works Designated as Indonesian Intangible Cultural Heritage” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
“French Foreigners in Bali Become Victims of ATM Burglary” from Kumparan (Indonesian)
“Due to Erosion, PPI Kusamba Building, Which Cost IDR 18 billion, Destroyed” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
How You Can Help Bali
Due to the collapse of the tourism sector in Bali, tens of thousands of families have found themselves with a greatly reduced income—if any. If you’d like to support organizations working to help those in need, you can see a list of some here.
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