Thursday, November 5
Mass swab testing programs get underway + Multiple roadblocks set up along Buleleng-Tabanan border + Vast enforcement action in Tabanan deploys hundreds of officers & military + more!
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Weather & Waves
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Surf Outlook
*NOTE: BMKG Balai Besar Region III Denpasar has issued a High Wave Warning for today and tomorrow. Waves as high as 3 meters are likely to occur in the Southern Waters of Bali, the Bali Strait and the Lombok Strait.
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: Yesterday the government announced that 10 of the new cases were imported, which means that they were either visitors, or cases that had been traced to somebody visiting the island. It is the most imported cases logged in a single day since late April/early May, when overseas workers were still returning home en masse. 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
MASS TESTING UPDATE: As noted in several issues last week, multiple Regency governments have begun a process of testing all public-facing employees. Yesterday, Buleleng continued its program by swab testing workers in its Regional Secretariat offices. The Regency’s Covid-19 Task Force spokesperson, Gede Suyasa, said that their goal going forward is to process 200-300 swab tests per day and reach 7,000 tests conduced by the end of the year. In addition, Badung has begun recruiting volunteers for its expanded contact tracing program, which will see 5 tracers assigned to each of the regency’s healthcare centers. While Denpasar announced a plan last week to offer free swab testing at all 11 of its public healthcare centers, Badung has not yet committed to a similar program, so it is not clear if they will also roll out a similar program, or if their focus will be solely on contact tracing.
"Police Set Up Partition Posts At Regency Borders to Prevent Crowds" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): Following up on the potential for movement in Denpasar City, the Buleleng Police set up a bulkhead post on the Buleleng - Tabanan border to be precise on Jalan Raya Pancasari Village, Sukasada District, Buleleng. Block posts were erected to capture and prevent crowds who are vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19. The lockdown was carried out in anticipation of a meeting which resulted in the gathering of many people... Even though the development of the Covid-19 case in Buleleng is fairly sloping, prevention continues, especially at certain points that are prone to crowds. "The goal is to make a bulkhead post in Pancasari only to prevent crowds and prevent the outbreak of Covid-19," said AKBP Sinar Subawa.
"Accelerating Handling Covid-19, BRSU Tabanan Prepares Second PCR Machines" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): BRSU Tabanan, one of the referral hospitals shown by the Indonesian Ministry of Health to treat Covid-19 patients, is again assisted by a polymerase machine (PCR). With the addition of this second PCR machine, the total BRSU Tabanan has two PCR machines. One PCR device previously owned by BRSU Tabanan was only able to test 30 samples. The new PCR machine when operating will be able to run 96 sample swabs every one lap... "One time running takes approximately three hours. So that in one shift, the sample can be checked twice running. So the samples that can be completed in one shift are 252 samples for two PCR machines," said Dr. Susila, Director of BRSU Tabanan. Although the independent swab test has been carried out since October 15, 2020. Each patient who performs an independent swab test must pay IDR 889,000 per / person.
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Other Headlines
"Road Map for COVID-19 Vaccination in Final Stage: Task Force" from The Jakarta Post: We're listing candidate vaccines and determining vaccination priority groups," the task force's spokesperson, Wiku Adisasmito, said. He elaborated that the government needed to consider several factors to determine the priority groups such as vaccine availability, the number of residents that need to be vaccinated, high-risk areas, as well as vaccination steps and indexes. According to Wiku, the road map would also cover vaccine platform schemes and clusters that would be first targeted for vaccination.
"Joint Enforcement Team Simultaneously Sanctions 175 People, Assigns Push Ups to 2 People" from Bali Puspa News: The Police of Tabanan continues to work in synergy with the Tabanan Military Command 1619, together with Sat Pol PP, to carry out joint YUSTISI activities simultaneously. The joint Yustisi team deployed a force of 256 personnel, consisting of 225 members of the National Police, 22 members of the TNI, and 11 members of Sat Pol PP. Besides the pecalang, 9 people. The operation, which targeted 246 locations, succeeded in prosecuting 175 offenders, was subject to verbal reprimands of 131 people, physical sanctions for 2 people, and the activity was published on social media 44 times.
"Klungkung Covid-19 Task Force Harvests Fines of IDR 6 Million from Prokes Inspections" from Radar Bali: Covid Task Force-19 Klungkung has netted 323 violators of health protocols in October-November. Not only given sanctions in the form of guidance, some of them are also subject to fines so that the fines collected in these activities are around Rp. 6 million. "Starting October we have given sanctions for those who do not apply health protocols. Not to find fault, but to make people aware of the discipline of implementing health programs," explained Kasatpol PP and Klungkung Fire Department, Putu Suarta. "We are still doing this health protocol inspection every day," he said.
(Ed. Note: Multiple reports about health protocol patrols continue to appear in the media every day, and as you cna tell form the massive patrol noted in the previous story, it remains a high profile government action. In addition to this update out of Klungkung, Denpasar Police announced yesterday that they had “netted” more than 600 “offenders” in the two months since the regulations went into effect, issuing fines to 323 people. Wear your masks!)
"Bali Shopping Mall in Trouble with Authorities After Large Event Violates Health Protocols" from The Bali Sun: The Park 23 Mall in Kuta, Bali has been sanctioned for violating the Bali provincial government’s rules on masks and social distancing. The Head of Badung Enforcement and Investigation Public Civil Service, I Wayan Sukanta said that the management of Park 23 Mall have been punished for creating a large crowd inside a building while having a motorbike event on Sunday Oct 25th 2020. “As a punishment we won’t allow the Park 23 management to create a similar event for 1 month,” Sukanta said.
"Bali Will Have a Cultural Center Worth IDR 2.5 Trillion" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): Amidst the current gasping economic conditions, the Bali Provincial Government is still aggressively preparing a number of major programs. One of them is the mega project for the construction of the Bali Cultural Center in Gunaksa Village, Dawan District, Klungkung, worth IDR 2.5 trillion. The project, which is one of the programs to realize the Vision and Mission of Nangun Sat Kertih Loka Bali, is the first giant project in Bali, sourced from the central government's soft loan fund in the form of the PEN program (national economic recovery). The construction of the Bali Cultural Center project in Klungkung is planned to use an area of ??IDR 300 hectares and will become a new tourist destination.
"West Bali National Park to Use AI-based Forest-monitoring Technology" from The Jakarta Post: The project, dubbed the Smart Forest Guardian, is a collaboration between Chinese tech giant Huawei and the Rainforest Connection NGO. It aims to protect the forest from illegal logging and poachers... Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Panjaitan said that the technology from Huawei could be used to monitor data recording through sounds, which later would produce comprehensive data about activities in Indonesia’s forests. “With that technology, we can prevent illegal activities in our forests,” said Luhut.
"As Illegal Racing Increases, IMI Bali Asks the Government to Facilitate Circuits" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): I Nyoman Seniweca, Chair of the Bali Indonesian Motorcycle Association (IMI), noted that Indonesia actually already has Law Number 3 of 2005 concerning the National Sports System. In this law, mandating the people's hobby should be facilitated by the state. "Those who race, should be facilitated. In Bali, those who like dancing, there is an Art Center, those who like the ball have a soccer field and so on," he said... Meanwhile in Bali, those who are happy with driving agility do not have the facilities to hone their skills."So it can't be blamed for them channeling their hobby on the highway which has resulted in losses to other road users," he said. For that, he said, this requires the government's attention in order to accommodate the people's hobbies, in this case those who are happy with driving agility.
The View from Outside
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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.
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