Tuesday, August 11
Sanjiwani Hospital Maternity Ward, incl. 7 women & 4 newborns, quarantined for 2 weeks + Bali confirms schools not reopening despite national govt permission + Possible Bali-only travel bubble + more!
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Weather & Waves
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Surf Outlook (animation shows changes from 8:00am - 6:00pm)
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 complete breakdown of yesterday’s numbers + trendlines in our evening update.
The Big News
"After Worker Tests Positive for Covid-19, Sanjiwani Hospital Postpartum Room Closed" from Bali Express (Indonesian): The Postpartum Room at Sanjiwani Gianyar Hospital will be closed for 14 days and will reopen on August 24, after health workers assigned to the area have tested positive for Covid-19. A health worker from the hospital's Emergency Room has been assigned to guard the postpartum room. During the closure, the hospital will not serve childbirth patients... There are 10 health workers exposed to Covid-19 at the hospital, consisting of 1 nurse and 9 midwives. Currently, there are 7 patients and 4 babies in the postpartum ward. In order to handle these patients, a midwife normally assigned to the emergency room and the delivery room will guard the postpartum room. If there are obstetric patients during the closure process, they will be directed to the Payangan Hospital and the nearest hospital.
"Bali Not Opening Schools Despite Yellow and Green Zones" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): The government, through the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud), has declared that schools in green and yellow zones of infection are allowed to conduct face-to-face learning. However, Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Makarim said the policy did not impose face-to-face learning by following health protocols in those zones; instead, it revised the previous government decree to allow face-to-face learning in schools if local governments choose to do so... However, according to the Secretary of Bali's Covid-19 Task Force, I Made Rentin, Bali Province still has not conducted face-to-face learning at schools.
"Ministry Considers Localized Travel Bubble to Accelerate Tourist Industry Recovery" from The Jakarta Post: Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is mulling over the possibility of establishing travel bubbles with neighboring countries in a more local scope to accelerate the rebound of the pandemic-hit tourist industry, the ministry’s official has said... The ministry’s undersecretary for infrastructure and destination development, Hari Santosa Sungkari, said on Aug. 7 that the government’s plan to establish travel bubbles may not be between countries as previously floated, but rather between a country and provinces or specific tourist destinations. “We are drafting the travel bubble policy, which I assume wouldn’t be between countries. It may be between country A with Bali, or even between regions,” he said.
(Ed. Note: This confirms and expands on Friday's comments by Kosmas Hareva, Assistant Deputy for Sustainable Tourism Development at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, which we noted in yesterday's newsletter.)
Other Headlines
"Badung Not Planning to Change to Face-to-Face Learning" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): The Badung Education, Youth and Sports Agency (Disdikpora) has yet to plan to change the learning system, from online or online to face-to-face. Badung Disdikpora does not want to change the learning system because until now, Badung Regency is still in the red zone. In fact, every day Covid-19 cases in Badung district continue to increase... "We have coordinated with the Task Force, and it is stated that our region (Badung Regency) is still in the red zone," said I Ketut Widia Astika, Head of Badung Disdikpora, I Ketut Widia Astika.
"Bali’s ‘New Era’ Will Focus More on Local Resources Over Tourism, Governor Says" from Coconuts: “My agenda for the next two years consists of preparing an ecosystem that balances the fundamentals of Bali’s economy. It covers tourism, agriculture, and manufacturing,” Koster said. “To be able to carry out these economic fundamentals, it must be supported with infrastructure. Developing land, sea, and air infrastructure that are connected and integrated. We will make it happen one by one,” he continued.
"Minister of Education and Culture Issues Emergency Curriculum, Denpasar Follows Instructions" from Bali Express (Indonesian): The Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture has issued an emergency curriculum concerning Guidelines for Implementing Curriculum in Education Units in Special Conditions... This curriculum reduces the basic competencies for each subject so that teachers and students focus on essential competencies and prerequisite competencies for learning at the next level. Students are not burdened with demands to complete all curriculum achievements for grade promotion and graduation. The implementation of the curriculum is valid until the end of the school year. In addition, the PAUD learning module is carried out with the principle that play is learning.
"ASITA-Bali Splits with ASITA’s Natl Board" from Bali Discovery: The Directors of the Bali Chapter of the Indonesia Association of Travel Agents (ASITA-Bali) have filed a motion of no confidence against the Chairman of the Central Board of ASITA in Jakarta. The “no confidence motion” against ASITA-Indonesia’s Chairwoman, Dr. N. Rusmiati, formally rejects the Central Board’s decision to dismiss the Bali Board of ASITA and appoint an interim chairman and secretary until a new board can be elected in six months.
"Governor Koster Forms One-stop Portal for Bali Tourism" from Antara (Indonesian): "The one-stop portal for Bali tourism includes hotel / lodging reservations, electronic ticketing for tourist destinations, online transportation, a digital marketplace for Bali tourism, integration of non-cash paymentsand other fields in accordance with the development of the Bali tourism industry," said Koster... Every tourism service business in Bali is obliged to register on the one-door Bali tourism portal that sells its products / services to other parties online and offline. Furthermore, any tourism service business that conducts product sales transactions and / or exchanges information, either directly or indirectly with other service businesses, must go through this one-door Bali tourism portal.
"Bali Airport Recorded 4.87 million Passengers from January-July" from Antara (Indonesian): "The number of passengers and aircraft movements is much different compared to 2019," said General Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) International Airport, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Herry AY Sikado. In the same period last year, Ngurah Rai Airport served as many as 13,398,700 passengers who were transported via 87,724 aircraft movements. This represents a decrease in the number of passengers of 8,527,683 people or 63.6%, with aircraft movements falling 55.8% or 48,986.
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.
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