Wednesday, December 16
Guv affirms Minister's decree, bans New Year's parties & drinking, requires swab tests for air travelers & antigen tests for land arrivals + Dec on pace to be 2nd-worst month of outbreak + 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: Click here to see the national numbers infographic and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers.
The Big News
"Bali Issues Policy on Mandatory PCR Test for Airline Passengers" from Tempo: The Bali provincial government has issued circular No. 46 of 2020 which requires domestic airline passengers wishing to visit the Island of the Gods to present PCR swab or swab test documents. The policy takes effect during the Christmas and New Year holidays. “It comes to effect from December 18, 2020, to January 4, 2021,” said the regional Tourism Agency Head I Putu Astawa. The local government mandated tourists traveling by air to show a negative result of the Covid-19 PCR swab test no later than 2x24 hours before departure. They are also obliged to fill out the electronic health alert card (e-HAC) application. Meanwhile, tourists traveling using private vehicles via land and sea transport are required to show a negative result of the Rapid Antigen test. The test must be done at least 2x24 hours before departure.
(Ed. Note: Test results are valid for 14 days. If a traveler plans to exit Bali more than 2 weeks after they took the test to enter the island, they would need to take another one before they leave. For example, if a visitor scheduled their vacation on Bali from December 20 - January 2, any test taken prior to January 19 would not be valid for their exit, so they’d need to arrange to take another one while in Bali in order to be able to board the return flight.)
"Bali Government ‘Prohibits’ New Year Celebrations, Fireworks With New Circular" from Coconuts: In a new circular issued to anticipate the upcoming year-end holiday, officials say that any activity throughout Christmas and the New Year must adhere to health protocols, comprising compulsory mask use, social distancing and limits on public and crowded places, among others. Some notable parts of the circular says that everyone, be it individuals, businesses, or organizers, are “strictly prohibited” from the following:
Organizing New Year celebrations and the likes –– both indoors and outdoors
Lighting fireworks, firecrackers, and the likes; and
getting drunk on liquor and alcoholic drinks.
"Indonesia Adds 90,000 Covid Cases Halfway through December" from The Jakarta Globe: Indonesia has recorded more than 90,000 new cases of coronavirus in the first half of the month in another confirmation that the country is currently in its worst period of the outbreak. Newly cases have been spiking at unprecedented rate in major hotspots as daily death toll continues to hit three-digit figures for three consecutive weeks... An additional 155 people have died from coronavirus in the 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll to 19,111. It’s for the 24th day in a row that the daily death toll has topped 100, twice the length of the previous record in September. The seven-day average of Covid-19 deaths is also in a record-breaking run for the last five days, with the latest standing at 159.
(Ed. Note: Halfway through December, Bali has recorded 1,708 total cases and 40 deaths, which is just under double the number of cases reported (927) and more than twice as many fatalities as was seen at this point in November (17). The first half of this month is now the second-worst for new cases on the island since the outbreak began, slotting above October (1,635) and after September (2,173). The number of deaths at this point has not yet reached the levels seen in September (116) or October (65). This appears to be a result of the mass testing programs that many Regencies have rolled out, as many more asymptomatic cases are being detected and the corresponding death rate so far this month (2.34%) is lower than it was halfway through both September (5.34%) and October (3.98%).)
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Other Headlines
"BPOM to Extend Monitoring Stage of Sinovac Vaccine Trial for Next Three Months" from The Jakarta Post: The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has announced that it will extend the monitoring stage of a phase three clinical trial for the Chinese-developed vaccine Sinovac for another three months to determine the vaccine's efficacy and side effects. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, who is participating in the clinical trial, said initially the 1,620 volunteers were scheduled to undergo their last blood tests in December. "However, we had to take another blood test in March," Ridwan said. BPOM had ordered researchers to take other blood samples from the volunteers six months after the fist injections of the Sinovac vaccine to ensure that they would still have antibodies against the coronavirus in the long run. "This means the result of the clinical trials will also be postponed to March," he said.
(Ed. Note: This story does not include a confirmation from BPOM, so it is not clear if this continued monitoring will delay the authorization process for the vaccine that is supposed to get underway as soon as Sinovac’s complete testing data is submitted to the government- which could happen any day now. Drug/vaccine trials routinely have an extended monitoring process that follows test subjects to look for long-term effects. We don’t know if this is the BPOM taking a hand in this process, or if they are widening the data set required for their evaluation & authorization process. If it’s the latter, it would significantly delay the deployment of the vaccine here in Indonesia.)
"After Bali Requires Mandatory Swab Tests, Prospective Guests Do Not Want to Pay the Hotel DP" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): Made Raka, a tourism actor in Ubud, Gianyar, said that after the enactment of the SE Governor of Bali, no prospective tourist has yet to cancel hotel bookings. However, prospective guests do not want to give a down payment (DP). Apart from having to add fees for the PCR / swab test, these prospective tourists also cannot confirm that they can go on vacation to Bali in Nataru later. They have to wait for a negative swab test result. "Automatically, the tourism actors involved cannot be moved because there is no DP, there is no guarantee of their arrival. Occupancy in Ubud is still very low, even there are still many that are not yet operational," he continued.
"Towards the End of the Year, Health Prokes Raids Are Getting More Intense" from Berita Bali (Indonesian): Towards the end of the year holidays, the joint Yustisi Team to enforce health protocols in Buleleng is increasingly conducting health protocol enforcement operations. Of the 360 target locations of the control that were carried out simultaneously on Monday (14/12) in all regions, 90 people were arrested with sanctions, 64 verbal warnings, 5 written warnings, and 20 fines. Head of Public Relations of the Buleleng Police, Iptu Gede Sumarjaya, said that the disciplinary activity of health protocols targets places such as traditional markets, modern markets, shopping complexes, residential complexes, tourist objects, roads, ports, places of worship, and terminals in Buleleng regency.
(Ed. Note: This story is about Monday’s enforcement activities in Buleleng, but the headline could apply island-wide. The patrol in Buleleng is one of the largest that has yet been deployed there, and media continues to include reports of patrols in all parts of Bali every day. Furthermore, it has been 3 months since the health protocols were issued and fines proscribed for violators, so police and regency governments are starting to report their “end-of-quarter” results. Yesterday, Denpasar Police said that they had caught 1,393 people not wearing masks, issuing fines to 686 while letting the other 665 off with a warning. Over in Bangli, the “joint justice team” said that their actions has resulted in 1,168 citations being issued so far, but no fines were imposed. Instead, they gave 642 oral warnings, 383 written warnings, forced 68 people to do push-ups, and gave out 75 “social sanctions” such as singing the national anthem or some other task meant to publicly humiliate. Note that in all areas, any foreigners stopped for violating health protocols are supposed to be reported to Imigrasi.)
"Ration Swab Tests, Task Force Head Tells Regions" from The Jakarta Post: National COVID-19 task force head Doni Monardo has asked regional health agencies to ration their polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and stay consistent with the World Health Organization's minimum benchmark of 1,000 per 1 million people per week. Doni said his team found that some provinces had exceeded the benchmark per week, such as Jakarta, and that all regions should use them wisely to anticipate future cases as the COVID-19 epidemic had yet to see its end. “Please ration them. Don't waste them on tests that do not suit the targets,” he said.
"Singapore to Open Travel Bubble As It Prepares to Stand In for Davos" from Reuters: Singapore is to allow a limited number of business, official and other “high economic value” travellers from around the world under a “bubble” arrangement that offers a glimpse into what visitors for this year’s relocated Davos summit might expect. The new arrangement due to start in late January will keep visitors segregated to guard against COVID-19 infection while allowing for safe meetings between people from abroad and from Singapore during stays lasting up to 14 days. Visitors would be regularly tested, have to stay in “bubbles” of five people at segregated facilities, carry contact-tracing devices and only meet other guests and Singapore-based people in rooms with floor-to-ceiling dividers, authorities said.
"PHRI Buleleng Proposes Free Swab for Foreign Tourists" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Buleleng suggested the government provide free swabs for foreign tourists to boost tourism revival. Chairman of PHRI Buleleng Dewa Ketut Suardipa Monday (14/12) said the government's proposal to provide incentives for foreign tourists in the form of free swabs to attract visits to Buleleng. Moreover, so far the Buleleng tourism market share is dominated by foreign tourists from the European continent. "The occupancy rate is still around 5-10 percent. In terms of business, it is still in free fall, not a few are not living at all because there are no visits," said Suardipa.
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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