Tuesday, December 8
First shipments of vaccine arrive in country; 30 million doses due this month + Buleleng begins trial of in-person learning at school + All districts in Denpasar Green or Yellow zones except 1 + more!
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Weather & Waves
Today’s Weather for Southern Bali
Today’s Tides
Surf Outlook
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: For the last week, Tabanan has been the driver of new case totals in Bali, with 438 detected- 238 of which came from the cluster at the Transportation Ministry’s boarding school. Most of the cases detected have been asymptomatic, making it impossible to tell how far along in the virus’ course each person was at the time of testing. It appears that a good many of them were on the way to self-resolving, as yesterday the Task Force there declared 219 of its active patients to be free from the virus, including 195 students. While the Regency only added 8 new cases yesterday, officials there expect that their expanded testing & tracing activities - including a mass testing program targeted at 6,000 government workers & contractors that began yesterday - will continue to uncover additional cases.
Click here to see the national numbers infographic and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers. And in case you missed it, check out Sunday’s update for a summary of last week’s overall totals, with perspective on how they stack up against previous weeks + detailed breakdowns of the virus’ spread on a Regency-by-Regency level.
The Big News
"Indonesia Receives 1.2m Doses of Sinovac Vaccine, Expects Emergency Use Authorization Soon" from The Jakarta Globe: The vaccines were the first part of 3 million doses of procurement from Sinovac that the country planned to use in the first wave of vaccination, mainly for health and frontline workers. Sinovac has yet to announce the result of their stage III clinical trials, one of which is still underway in Bandung, West Java, involving more than 1,300 volunteers. Sinovac's stage II preliminary result showed the vaccine 70% efficacy. In comparison, vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna have shown the efficacy of more than 90% from their stage III clinical trials. Still, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto is confident that Indonesia's Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM) would approve Sinovac's vaccine for emergency use. "The vaccine will be immediately authorized for emergency use by BPOM according to scientific and statutory requirements," Terawan said.
(Ed. Note: Even though the Sinovac vaccine has started to arrive, and the government has signed deals with other pharmaceutical companies for massive amounts of alternate vaccines, as well as pre-authorized 4 additional companies to submit their vaccines for regulatory approval, the country has also entered into the Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX). Set up by the WHO, the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), it is “a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual COVID-19 vaccines.” Indonesia will be able receive assistance procuring enough vaccine to administer it to up to 20% of its population.)
"Face-to-face Learning Trials in Buleleng are Started, Prokes are Strictly Implemented" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): Face-to-face learning trials (PTM) are being conducted by one of the vocational high schools in Buleleng Regency, namely SMKN 3 Singaraja. So with that consideration added to the existing rules, students can study face-to-face in any zone while still strictly implementing health protocols in the learning plan in 2021... The principal of SMK Negeri 3 Singaraja, Nyoman Suastika, said that in the implementation of this simulation process, all students from 10 different competency programs a day were only about 300 people who were presented to the school using two shift, namely from 8.00 - 10.00 and 10.30 - 12.30.
(Ed. Note: Of the 2,151 parents of students at the school only 50 withheld permission for their children to participate in the test, meaning that the vast majority of students enrolled there are taking part.)
"Only One Area in Denpasar Has Orange Zone Status, the Others Are Yellow and Green" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): Currently, only one area in Denpasar has the orange zone status out of 43 villages / wards. The area, namely Kelurahan Ubung , has risen from the green zone to the orange zone due to the spike in positive cases of Covid-19 in the region. Meanwhile, other villages / kelurahan have yellow and green zone status. Spokesman for Denpasar's Covid-19 Task Force, I Dewa Gede Rai, said that currently there are 22 villages / kelurahan that still have yellow zone status. Meanwhile, 20 other villages / kelurahan have green zone status.
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Other Headlines
"Without PPE, the Hospital Rejects Covid-19 Patients from Breaking Out" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): Voters who are exposed to Covid-19 and undergo isolation at the State Hospital are very unlikely to be able to use their voting rights. This is because the State General Hospital will not allow voting officers to meet Covid-19 patients without complete personal protective equipment. "We do not provide PPE for KPU officers, because the price is hefty. If the KPU provides complete PPE for voting officers, including witnesses and security personnel, then we will. But if not, we will not allow it because it is very dangerous," said Dr. I Gusti Bagus Ketut Oka Parwata, Plt. Director of the State Hospital.
(Ed. Note: Election officials in several Regencies, including Karangasem, are scrambling to find ways to ensure that people currently in hospital are able to vote in tomorrow’s election. Because the Provincial Government does not regularly disclose hospitalization figures, it is not known how many of the 979 active cases are people in self-isolation at home, how many are being housed at government-run isolation facilities, and how many have been admitted to hospital.)
"Jakarta Extends Transitional PSBB to Dec. 21 As Cases Surge" from The Jakarta Post: Jakarta has seen a surge in coronavirus transmission since late October's long weekend, with hundreds of new family clusters emerging in the city, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said. From Nov. 23 to 29, authorities found 410 family clusters with 4,052 cases, accounting for 41% of all COVID-19 cases they discovered in the same period. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Jakarta increased 13.4% in the last month with a total of 145,427 confirmed cases recorded on Monday. The bed occupancy rate in 98 COVID-19 reference hospitals all across the capital city has also increased to 79% as of Saturday from 56 percent on Nov 7.
"Bali Provincial Government Buys Ex-excavated Land In Klungkung for IDR 26.5 million Per Acre" from The IDN Times (Indonesian): The Provincial Government (Pemprov) of Bali has again held a deliberation to determine the value of land in the ex-Galian C Klungkung, to normalize the Unda River channel and the construction of the Bali Cultural Center. Previously a number of local people disagreed because the appraisal team set a price of Rp. 22.5 million per acre. After more thorough discussion, the value of land acquisition became IDR 26.5 million per acre... The land acquisition for the normalization of the Unda River is the beginning of the Bali Provincial Government's big plan to build a Bali Cultural Center in the ex-C excavation. This mega project costs around IDR 2.5 trillion, which will later use the National Economic Recovery (PEN) loan. "My target is that the Bali Cultural Center will be completed by 2023," explained Governor Koster.
"Bali Catholics: Christmas in Half-Full Pews" from Bali Discovery: The Parochial Pastoral Council (DPP) of the Denpasar Cathedral has declared that the maximum quotas on the number allowed to attend Roman Catholic religious services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (24-25 December 2020) will not be increased during the continuing COVID-19 Pandemic. The DPP of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Denpasar has imposed a maximum attendance of 500 worshippers at any religious ritual. This total is around 20% of the total seating capacity of approximately 2,500 at the Cathedral. A spokesman for the DPP said procedures to maintain physical distancing during religious services would remain unchanged. The limits on total attendance were introduced in July 2020 when the Catholic Churches in Bali reopened their doors.
"Govt Ships $1.64 billion Exports to Capitalize On Momentum of Q3 Surplus" from The Jakarta Post: The government on Friday released a shipment of exports worth US$1.64 billion by 133 large and small businesses to seek alternative markets and to revive Indonesian trade, which has slowed during the COVID-19 crisis. While 79 large businesses accounted for the overwhelming majority of the exports, 54 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contributed $12.3 million. “One of the keys to improving the national economy is by boosting exports, which not only helps businesses to grow and create jobs, but also generates foreign exchange [forex] reserves to reduce our current account deficit,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said. Indonesia’s forex reserves stagnated in November at $133.6 billion after booking $133.7 billion in October, supported by government foreign debt withdrawal as well as tax and forex earnings from oil and gas, Bank Indonesia (BI) announced on Monday.
The View from Outside
"Why Indonesia is Losing the COVID Fight While Neighbours Crush the Virus" from The Age: While the number of cases per one million people in Indonesia is lower than neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore or the Philippines, there's a huge caveat that must be put on that statistic: Indonesia is languishing at 160th in the world in terms of tests per one million people. It's obvious that Indonesia hasn't been able to test widely enough. In addition to this, contact tracing has been inadequate (the government belatedly hired more contact tracers only in November) and the density of Java, combined with the lack of financial reserves the central government can call on (Indonesia's stimulus measures have been relatively modest) have all combined to exacerbate a difficult situation during the global pandemic.
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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