Saturday, October 24
Prison outbreak confirmed as 30 of first 200 prisoners tested are positive + Doctors warn of testing shortfall & lack of data + Nusa Penida Hospital services limited due to staff infections + more!
Good morning! Welcome to The Bali Beat for Saturday, October 24. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to get this update delivered directly to your Inbox every Monday-Saturday morning, along with each evening’s Covid-19 update. If you are already a subscriber, thank you! Please be sure to share it with others in the foreigner community on the island by clicking the button below.
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PUBLICATION REMINDER: I’m off tomorrow, so there will be no newsletter in the morning. However, the evening Covid-19 update will publish as normal; and being Sunday, it will include a wrap-up of the week’s numbers and put them in context with previous weeks.
Weather & Waves
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Surf Outlook
*NOTE: The Center for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BBMKG) Region III Denpasar predicts that waves in the waters of Southern Bali will be categorized as dangerous through today, especially in the areas of Nusa Dua, Pecatu, Ungasan and the Southern waters of Nusa Penida, with waves reaching a height of 3 meters.
Weather forecast from Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology & Geophysics Council (Link)
Tide table from Tide-forecast.com.
Surf outlook via Windy.com.
Local Covid Numbers
*NOTE: Click here to see the national numbers infographic, trend charts, and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers in our evening update.
The Big News
"30 Kerobokan Bali Prison Inmates Positive for COVID-19" from The IDN Times (Indonesian): A total of 627 prisoners in the Class II A Kerobokan prison were declared reactive after undergoing a rapid test. The Badung District Health Office then tested the swab, and the results were found to be 30 positive for COVID-19. Now, the 30 prisoners have been placed at Wisma Kuta. "Of the first 200 (inmates) in Kerobokan Prison tested, 30 have been confirmed as positive. The rest of the swab results will be returned on Saturday," said head of Public Relations of the Bali Kemekumham Regional Office, I Putu Surya Dharma.
(Ed. Note: The 627 inmates who had reactive rapid test results have all been moved to a designated wing of the prison, while the guards and employees who were reactive have been ordered to conduct independent isolation until their swab test results are returned.)
"Unud Epidemiology Team: The Number of Covid-19 Tests in Bali Is Still Less" from Berita Bali (Indonesian): Dr. I Made Ady Wirawan, MPH, PhD, Chair of the Udayana University Health Research Center and part of the Epidemiology Team of the Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University, assessed that testing rates are getting better, with the effective reproduction rate per day of 0.92. However, this figure would be better if accompanied by an adequate number of tests, namely a minimum of 1 / 1,000 population per week. He said the number of Covid-19 tests in Bali per week was still lacking... From the national data, it is recorded that testing has only reached 0.85 per 1,000 people per week, with the proportion of tests being dominated by DKI Jakarta. Although the details of the number of tests in Bali are not known, the ideal size is 1 per 1,000 population per week. "If the population of Bali is 4 million, then ideally 4,000 people will be tested per week and not the number of specimens," he said. He also still saw the number of cases without symptoms that were not detected where it was recorded that only 1/4 of patients without symptoms were detected in the last 2 months.
(Ed. Note: While the Bali government does not routinely publish testing numbers, Agus Wibowo, Director of Disaster Management Strategy Development at the National Disaster Management Agency, often posts running totals broken out by province on his Twitter feed. From the most two most recent of these posts, on October 7 & October 17, we can calculate that between those dates Bali ran 6,339 tests- an average of 634 per day. At that rate, Bali’s weekly total would be 4,438 tests, which given its population of 4.2 million, puts it in line with WHO guidelines. However, there is no way to know if the testing numbers represent samples or people, and even the numbers themselves can’t be confirmed, nor can their accuracy be presumed, until the Provincial Government starts regularly releasing daily testing data. Everything is a guess right now.)
"Gema Santi Hospital Staff Positive Covid-19 Increased, Services Reopened" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): A number of services at the UPTD Gema Santi Nusa Penida Regional Hospital have resumed operations yesterday after being temporarily closed because dozens of hospital employees were confirmed by Covid-19. However, the service provided was not optimal because a number of medical personnel at the hospital were again confirmed to be Covid-19 and are still undergoing isolation at Gema Santi Nusa Penida Hospital. according to dr. I Ketut Rai Sutapa, Director of UPTD RSUD Gema Santi Nusa Penida, the number of medical personnel on duty was not entirely. "Like in the emergency room, where there were usually three medical personnel per shift, now only two medical personnel are served per shift," he explained.
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Other Headlines
"Govt Scraps Passenger Service Charge for Departures From 13 Airports" from Antara: "This stimulus is very positive since it will reduce the public's burden. (With the stimulus), air tickets will become cheaper," Muhammad Awaluddin, president director of state airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II, noted. The decision to scrap PSC applies to domestic departures at the country's 13 airports from October 23 to December 31, 2020... The PSC included in the air ticket of each passenger departing from Terminal 3 of the Soekarno-Hatta Airport currently amounts to Rp130,000; Terminal 2 of the Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Rp85,000; Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, Rp50,000; Silangit, Rp60,000; Banyuwang Airport, Rp65,000; and Kuala Namu Airport, Rp100,000.
"BRSUD Tabanan Awaits Realization of PCR Tool Assistance" from Berita Bali (Indonesian): The Regional General Hospital Agency (BRSUD) of Tabanan is waiting for the realization of the promise to procure a PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine for the swab test examination laboratory from the Bali Provincial Government. Director of the Tabanan Regional Hospital, Dr. I Nyoman Susila, said that on average a day, at least about 60 samples are tested. "It is enough for the benefit of the Tabanan patient, if you add contact tracing, the results are a little slow, because you run 30 samples once a day, if you add 60 samples a day," he said. He also hopes that additional PCR machine assistance can be realized soon. If more extensive tracing is needed, of course, a bigger machine is needed.
"The Rate of Violation of Health Protocols in Badung Has Fallen" from Antara (Indonesian): "At the beginning we started this activity, violations could be said to be massive above 200 violators per day, now it is below 50 violations," said IGAK Suryanegara, head of the Satpol PP of Badung Regency. He said that from the results of monitoring in the field, his party found that there were still many people who were wrong in wearing masks and negligence from applying 3M or wearing masks, washing hands with soap and maintaining distance. "We understand, but we also constantly remind people to comply with health protocols. Even though there will be vaccines, the best prevention is still with the 3M," he said.
"With Lower Rapid Test Costs, Bali Ngurah Rai Airport Serves Hundreds of People Per Day" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): "For users of rapid test facilities, basically when compared to last month there has been an increase," said Communication and Legal Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) Ngurah Rai Airport Bali , Andanina Dyah Permata Megasari. The incoming data is recorded on average per day now reaching 300-320 people. He admitted, many prospective passengers took advantage of the rapid test service after a tariff adjustment was made from Rp 150,000 to Rp 85,000. During the period of October 1 to 21, 6,800 users of air transport services utilized the rapid test services at Ngurah Rai Airport.
"Badung Tourism Office Verification of Tourism Grant Recipients" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): The Badung Regency Tourism Office (Dispar) has begun to verify potential hotels and restaurants receiving tourism grant assistance from the central government. The verification team has until October 30, 2020 to carry out verification, because before that date the data must be sent to the central government, after previously making a Regent Decree. "The verification process is ongoing. We carry out verification according to the implementation instructions (operational guidelines) and technical guidelines from the central government. So the provisions are all there, "said Acting Head of the Badung Cokorda Tourism Office, Raka Darmawan... "Now we in the Badung Regency Government in coordination with the Tourism Office are verifying which hotels and restaurants meet the requirements for this assistance. As much as 70% of Rp. 948 billion means around Rp. 663 billion which will be disbursed to hotels and restaurants," said the Assistant III for General Administration of the Regional Secretariat of Badung.
"Pandemic Hampers Mass Rabies Vaccination" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): The annual mass rabies vaccination program for stray dogs has not run smoothly this year. The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on the results of the mass rabies vaccination in Buleleng, which is currently at only 7.75%. The Buleleng Agriculture Office has been forced to adopt a strategy to prioritize vaccination in rabies red zones... Head of Buleleng's Agriculture Service, I Made Sumiarta, did not deny that the mass rabies vaccination achievement this year is very low. The latest data held by the Animal Husbandry Division only recorded vaccinating 8,613 stray dogs from a population of 111,076 stray dogs in Buleleng. The number is spread across nine sub-districts in Buleleng.
How You Can Help
In response to the collapse of the tourism sector in Bali and the resulting economic crisis, dozens of individuals and organizations have sprung into action, raising funds and distributing badly needed food and everyday essentials to the innumerable families who have suddenly found themselves without any source of income. We've been making an effort to document and raise awareness of these efforts. We will add information on projects in this space as we are able to confirm them. If you'd like to see a list of the efforts that we've featured so far and contribute to them with either time or money, visit our complete list here. You can also see a list of projects that have registered themselves at BaliSolidarity.org. If you know of an effort and would like to have them listed, please send their information to newsletter@migrationmedia.net.
About This Newsletter
This newsletter is a product of Migration Media, the hub for stories from and about the international migrant experience.
Our standards
We only include news items from established media sources
We do not share rumors.
We do not include opinion pieces or forecasts.
For all stories marked "Indonesian" I have used Google Translate to convert it from Bahasa. In most cases I try to polish the excerpt and/or write a short summary in proper English to help clarify the details.
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