October 11, 2021
Kuta Beach gate closures get cancelled + Bali wants quality-seeking Aussies + UK recognizes some Indonesian vaccination certificates + more
Good morning!
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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
NOTE: Daily recoveries have exceeded new cases in Bali every day since September 8, and the figure of 518 people in treatment has not been this low since June 17. Fatalities have been in single figures for more than two weeks. Overall, Bali’s numbers continue to trend in the right direction across the board.
The Big News
“Closure of 17 Entrances and Exits of Kuta Beach Bali Stopped” from Detik (Indonesian): The closure of 17 entrances and exits to Kuta Beach, Bali was finally stopped by the local traditional village."Yes, it's stopped, just stopped. Later, if the government wants to continue, please go ahead," said Kuta Indigenous Villager I Wayan Wasista on Sunday. Wasista said that his party closed dozens of entrances initially as an effort to optimize the application of the PeduliLindungi application. This is because Kuta Beach has 31 entrances, while it only gets eight barcodes for the app. ”Because there are too many doors, it is not optimal to carry out supervision," said Wasista. "I have given up, meaning that people's voices on social media are ugly, very rude. That's what I use for consideration," he explained. "If we only have eight doors with the scanner, the others only use officers, it's impossible. It's also useless," he added.
Context: The closure of the Kuta Beach access points, like the odd-even car access rules of a few weeks ago, did not last long after heated feedback from local stakeholders.
“Indonesian Plan to Get Quality-seeking Aussies Back to Bali” from The Age: Indonesia hopes to see Australian travellers return to Bali by the end of the year and is ready to talk to the Morrison government about how to get them back. The island will begin to welcome back foreign tourists on October 14 and Indonesian Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno is eager to see Australian travellers return soon. The initial intake won’t include travellers from Australia because of Canberra’s tough border measures but Sandiaga Uno said Australia was very important to Bali’s reopening plans. “If you guys are ready to discuss [travel to Bali] I’m ready in 15 minutes. You are our No.1 tourist market and we need to make sure that you guys are comfortable before we initiate the discussions. But we’re ready anytime,” he said.
Context: In the story the Minister also suggested Australians would be able to work remotely from Bali.
“UK to Recognize Indonesia's Vaccination Certificates” from The Jakarta Globe: The UK government recently announced it would recognize Indonesia’s proof of Covid-19 vaccination starting next week. Indonesia will also soon come off the UK’s travel red list and thus, arrivals will be exempt from the hotel quarantine. These changes will come into effect starting October 11, according to the British Embassy in Jakarta. However, travelers must keep in mind that the UK will only recognize those fully vaccinated with AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, or Janssen. It will also accept individuals with mixed doses of the aforementioned vaccines. Anyone receiving other brands of vaccines will still have to follow the non-vaccinated rules, including the ten-day-long quarantine.
Context: It was reported in late September that 80% of Indonesia’s vaccine supply has come from China. Despite the above, neither Sinovac nor Sinopharm are recognized by UK authorities.
>> Classifieds <<
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The Movement of Recovery (Yayasan Pergerakan Pemulihan) is one of the main drivers of mental health services in Bali. Together with BBB Community, they launched LISA (Love Inside Suicide Awareness), a helpline which offers support in Bahasa Indonesian and English. They offer free counselling and support for those in need. For more information, please visit their website here.
Other Headlines
“Indonesia Urged to Increase Airport Security to Avert Third Wave” from Antara: The head of the Indonesian Medical Association, Daeng M. Faqih urged the Indonesian Government to boost security at the airport, as Indonesia's entry point from overseas, to prevent the risk of a third wave of COVID-19. "The COVID-19 task force and the government must guard the entry points to Indonesia to avoid falling for (the third COVID-19 wave)," said Faqih on Saturday. Epidemiologists have projected a third or fourth wave of COVID-19 that threatens Indonesia. He also drew attention to cases of COVID-19 found at the Papua XX National Sports Week.
Vaccination Update
“100 Million Indonesians Have Had at Least One Covid-19 Vaccine Dose” from The Jakarta Globe: More than 100 million Indonesian citizens have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine since the vaccination drive began on January 13, according to Health Ministry data released on Sunday. Figures from the ministry’s vaccination dashboard show that 100,189,038 citizens are partially vaccinated, representing 48.11% of target population. Of that amount, 57.5 million already fully vaccinated, bringing the total number of administered doses to 157.7 million. The country received two million Pfizer doses on Sunday.
Context: Don’t forget, you can follow Bali’s vaccination progress in the Bali Beat Sunday evening edition.
More...
Nation: “Indonesia Receives Over 240,000 AstraZeneca Doses From UK” from Antara
Klungkung: “More Than 600,000 Karangasem Residents Vaccinated” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
Klungkung: “9,476 Students Unvaccinated” from Nusa Bali (Indonesian)
Health Protocols (Prokes) & Health Services
“Positive Cases of Covid-19 in Bali Drop Consistently” from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): Although testing reaches 4,500 people per day, positive cases of Covid-19 in Bali tend to be consistently dropping. On Saturday there were 38 positive cases of Covid-19 with a death rate of five people. Secretary of the Bali Province Covid-19 Task Force, Made Rentin, said that the positive cases of Covid-19 in Bali were consistently dropping because the health protocols were running according to the standards set by the government. "Today we tested more than 4,000 people, the results were 38 people positive for Covid-19. This low positive number has been consistent for the past few days," said Rentin. "The recovered cases have surpassed positive cases. This is encouraging news for us, but once again we urge the public not to be careless, not to be euphoric, to remain vigilant," he said.
More...
Nation: “Indonesia to Showcase Pandemic-handling at G20” from Antara
Province: “Jokowi Appreciates the Handling of Covid-19 in Bali” from Republika (Indonesian)
Province: “Mental Health Cases Increase Due to Pandemic” from Bali Post (Indonesian)
Gianyar: “To Accelerate Vaccinations, Ubud Police Invite Elderly Residents” from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian)
Klungkung: “Klungkung Market Fitted With QR Code Scanner” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
Economy & Infrastructure
“NTB Tourism Office to Optimize Local Weaving Promotion at WBSK, MotoGP” from Antara: The West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Tourism Office will optimize the promotion of local weaving clothes during World Superbike (WSBK) and MotoGP in at the Mandalika Circuit. "We will present our local weaving products at the two international events to promote our tourism," head of the office Yusron Hadi said on Sunday. Several promotion attempts had been conducted ahead of the WSBK on November 19-21, 2021 and MotoGP in March 2022, including encouraging tourism operators, especially hotels administrators, to wear uniforms made of woven fabrics or having any local weaving patterns, he said. "If there are many people using the local weaving products, then there will be many people who love the items which are rich in various motifs representing local wisdom," Hadi said.
More...
Nation: “Hotels and Restaurants in West Manggarai Asked to Pay Their Taxes” from Republika (Indonesian)
Province: “Long Stopped Due to Pandemic, Bali Exports 8 Tons of Mangosteen Daily” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
Education
“Hundreds of Children Caught COVID-19 When Indonesian Schools Reopened” from ABC Australia: The Indonesian Pediatric Society's president, Dr Aman Pulungan, said last month that more than 1,800 children in Indonesia had died because of COVID-19. Indeed, the country's COVID-9 task force reported that, up to August 8, there were 1,833 deaths in children aged between six and 18 years of age, and 531 in children under five years. Some areas in Indonesia have reported COVID-19 clusters in schools. The Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology has previously revealed that up to September 22, 1,296 out of 46,580 schools where face-to-face learning restarted had reported transmission of COVID-19.
Klungkung: “Closed For 18 Months, Library Reopens” from Nusa Bali (Indonesian)
Bali Reopening
“Ngurah Rai Airport Prepared for Reopening International Flights” from Antara: Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport operator and local tourism stakeholders conducted a simulation on international arrivals handling to assess the airport's readiness for resuming international flights on Thursday. "Today, we conducted a simulation to test our standard operating procedure on handling international arrivals," Transportation Ministry's director general of air transport, Novie Riyanto said on Saturday. The director general said the authority would assess and evaluate the simulation result to allow procedure revisions before the airport begins allowing international arrivals on Thursday while ensuring a detailed and strict implementation of protocols to protect passengers' health and prevent COVID-19 infection.
Context: There have been no official statements so far regarding what visas will be available for those planning on flying to Bali, nor have any international flights been announced.
More...
Province: “Opening of Bali for Foreigners Should Be Trialed First” from Kompas (Indonesian)
Province: “Private Holiday Vehicles Entering via Gilimanuk Increase” from Bali Post (Indonesian)
Province: “Tourism Objects Open, Officers Intensify Supervision” from Radar Bali (Indonesian)
Gianyar: “Open for Two Weeks, Ubud Monkey Forest Sees an Increases in Visits” from Bali Post (Indonesian)
“Many Tourists head to Nusa Penida” from Suara Bali (Indonesian): The number of tourists who travel to Nusa Penuda by boat from Sanur Beach is booming. Alit, one of the ship managers at Sanur Beach, also acknowledged the increase. "The increase has occurred since the last five days. Even the number of passengers on weekends and weekdays is not much different," said Alit. In addition to complying with the prokes, registration with the PeduliLindungi application is a requirement to enter a tourist attraction. One of them is on Sanur Beach. Bar codes have been provided at the entrance to the beach and at the crossing. However, monitoring in the field, almost no visitors registered.
Context: Last week media reports noted Sanur was still awaiting the delivery of sufficient barcode scanning equipment.
Of Interest
“To Suppress Rabies, Gianyar Intensifies Vaccinations” from Bali Post (Indonesian)
“List of 22 Indonesian Film Festival Citra Cup Nominees 2021” from Nusa Bali (Indonesian)
“UWRF Gives Lifetime Achievement Award to Budi Darma” from Antara Bali (Indonesian)
“Jokowi Urges Regions to Emulate Bali's Mangrove Rehabilitation” from Antara
“Tour Guide Bitten by Komodo Dragon” from Coconuts Bali
How You Can Help Bali
In response to the collapse of the tourism sector in Bali and the resulting economic crisis due to Covid19, tens of thousands of families have found themselves with a greatly reduced income—if any. By the middle of 2020, over 100,000 people on Bali had lost their job. While government support has been limited, Indonesians and foreigners have sprung into action, raising funds and distributing badly needed food and everyday essentials to those most in need.
We've been raising awareness of these efforts, and if you’d like to make a contribution of any kind, you can see a list of some organisations here. Further projects have registered themselves with Bali Solidarity. If you know of an effort and would like to have them listed, please send their information to TheBaliBeat@outlanders.global
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