Wednesday, February 17
Island govt will wait for order from Pres. Widodo before fining people who refuse vaccines + 90% of prokes violators in Badung are foreigners + Beach club parties draw govt & police ire + more!
Good morning! Welcome to The Bali Beat for Wednesday, February 17. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here to get this update delivered directly to your Inbox every Monday-Friday 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 island community by clicking the button below.
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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: Identical case numbers yesterday as the day before confirm that the weekend dip that we saw after the holiday was anomalous. While still not in peak range, daily new cases are running at a level just below that. Recoveries continue to outpace new cases, with numbers being greater than confirmed infections for 10 out of the last 11 days. Unfortunately, the record-setting fatality rate continues (9), with month-to-date deaths (143) now running 19% above September's pace.
Nation-wide, yesterday's new case totals jumped back over 10,000 for the first time in a week.
Click here to see the national numbers infographic and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers.
The Big News
"Bali Province Is Waiting for the Presidential Decree to Apply Fines for People Who Do Not Want to Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19" from Tribune Bali (Indonesian): DKI Jakarta Province has imposed fines for people who do not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Meanwhile, in Bali Province so far there have been no sanctions for people who refuse to be vaccinated. When confirmed, the Head of the Bali Provincial Health Office, Dr. Ketut Suarjaya said that his party would impose a fine after the Presidential Decree was issued. "The application of fines for people who do not want to be vaccinated for Bali itself will follow the presidential regulation that will be issued. And the implementation of this danda will be applied when the Presidential Decree has started to come out," he said.
Health Protocols (Prokes) & Patrols
"Prokes Violations in Badung, This Percentage of Foreigners" from The Bali Post (Indonesian): Foreign nationals (WNA) who still live in Bali, especially Badung Regency, have dominated violations of the Health protocol (Prokes). In fact, the local Civil Service Police Unit (Satpol PP) noted that out of hundreds of prokes violations, 90% were foreigners. "During the first, second and PPKM Micro PPKM, katatpol PP Badung, I Gusti Agung Ketut Suryanegara, admitted that he had imposed fines on 359 people. The violations consisted of 323 foreigners and 36 Indonesian citizens and they were subject to fines. It seems they now really don't believe in the plague," he said.
Badung: "Violates Prokes, 23 People Fined" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian)
Denpasar: "Prokes Inspection in Dauh Puri Village, 16 Violators in Rapid Antigen Test" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian)
Denpasar: "SupportMicro-scale PPKM, This is Done by the Police” from The Bali Post (Indonesian)
"Local Beach Bars Get in Party Hot Water" from The Seminyak Times: Three businesses in Badung were summoned to Satpol PP headquarters yesterday for apparent breaches over the weekend to the health protocols set within the PPKM restrictions. The lack of protocol enforcement at the beach side venues was spotlighted on social media, because many tourists (actually better said, many locals and foreigners, mostly long term residents of Bali. - Ed) were not wearing masks.
>> Classifieds <<
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Other Headlines
"PPKM Has 3 Volumes, The Red Zone Still Dominates Bali" from The Bali Post (Indonesian): The implementation of PPKM, which was intended to reduce the number of cases so that regional risk zone could change from red to orange and so on, has not been effective in Bali. The proof, from the latest data released y the National Cobis-19 Task Force as of February 14, the red zone still dominates Bali. Of the 9 districts / cities that exist, only three are in the orange zone. The remaining six regions are in the red zone, namely Jembrana, Tabanan, Badung, Denpasar, Gianyar, and Bangli, while the three orange zones are Karangasem, Buleleng, and Klungkung.
"Covid-19 Task Force Targets Indonesia to Be Coronavirus-free by Aug. 17 Independence Day" from Coconuts: The head of Indonesia’s COVID-19 task force has set an ambitious deadline by which Indonesia is to completely be rid of the coronavirus, with the targeted date falling on the country’s Independence Day. “Our target is the upcoming August 17 celebration, so we really have to be free of COVID-19. This means that COVID-19 is in a controllable position,” Doni Monardo, who only recently recovered from the viral disease, said. Doni said he was optimistic about this target after considering the decreasing number of active COVID-19 cases.
Vaccination Update
"Indonesia Approves Local Version of Sinovac Vaccine as Covid Cases on the Rise Again" from The Jakarta Globe: Indonesia’s Drug and Food Supervisory Agency, or BPOM, approved on Tuesday the emergency use of a vaccine against coronavirus manufactured by state-run pharmaceutical company Bio Farma under license from China’s Sinovac Biotech. The decision came just in time before the second round of mass vaccination kicks off on Wednesday targeting priority groups like public service workers and elderly citizens. Sinovac delivered a pile of half-finished vaccine early this month that according to the Health Ministry can be manufactured into at least 9 million doses of vaccine by Bio Farma.
More...
Nation: "1,120,963 Health Workers Vaccinated Against Covid-19" from Antara
Nation: "VP Emphasizes 181.5 Million Should Be Vaccinated for Herd Immunity" from Antara
Nation: "Ministry of Health Targets Vaccination of 1 Million Doses per Day Starting April" from Katadata (Indonesian)
Island: "Bali Targets 663,000 People for 2nd Phase of Covid-19 Vaccinations" from Coconuts
Island: "A Total of 3,039 Health Workers in Bali Canceled Receiving the Covid-19 Vaccine" from Bisnis Bali (Indonesian)
Economy News
"Economic Recovery Program Rescued Five Million People From Poverty" from Antara: The national economic recovery program (PEN), especially social protection in 2020, rescued over five million people from poverty during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Finance Ministry's official. "This means that the PEN program throughout 2020 is believed to have rescued more than five million people from becoming the new poor," Chief of the Fiscal Policy Board at the Finance Ministry Febrio Nathan Kacaribu stated. The poverty rate rose by 0.97% to 10.19% in September 2020 as compared to 9.22% in the corresponding month a year earlier, he pointed out.
"The Fate of Bali Tourism in the Midst of a Postponed Bubble Travel Policy, Koster: Be Patient With a Little More" from Tribune Bali (Indonesian): The Provincial Government (Pemprov) of Bali together with the center had planned to open tourism through a travel bubble in March 2021. However, this effort was postponed because the Covid-19 cases on the Island of the Gods increased again. "So we will re-examine the travel bubble policy. This policy is currently under debate with which countries can be done to open relations between the two countries. So it must be a reciprocal principle, not in the same direction. Because this concerns the equality of the two countries," explained Koster.
Tourism Figures
"Lunar New Year 2021, Passenger Arrivals at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Bali Airport Decrease 90%" from Tribune Bali (Indonesian): According to Stakeholder Relations Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) International Airport Branch Office I Gusti Ngurah Rai Bali, Taufan Yudhistira, in the period last year, the total number of passengers who came to Bali was 173,186 passengers. Meanwhile, this year, the total number of passengers arriving was 17,192, so there was a decrease of approximately 90%. "Our calculation period equates to 5 days. January 22 - 26, 2020 (Wednesday - Sunday) and February 10 - 14, 2021 (Wednesday - Sunday)," explained Taufan.
"Java Bali Connection Connected in 2025, Electricity in Bali Is More Reliable?" from Bisnis Bali (Indonesian): The construction of the Java Bali Connection with a voltage of 500 kilovolts (kV) is projected to be the backbone of the reliability of the electricity system in Bali for the next 15 years. General Manager of PLN UID Bali Adi Priyanto said, for the first phase, the Java Bali Connection (JBC) will operate in 2024 or 2025 and increase the electricity capacity in Bali by 720 MW. Currently, the electricity supply from Java to Bali is still supplied by the 150 kV Banyuwangi Gilimanuk Sea Cable Line with an installed power of 400 MW. If JBC operates, he continued, Bali will have two submarine cables running from Java to maintain the reliability of electricity for the Island of the Gods.
Of Interest
"Minimal Water Source in Nusa Penida, Kopernik Foundation Turns Well Water Into Clean Water"from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian)
"Sent Home Due to Pandemic, Buleleng Residents Made Anom Create F1 Race Car Replicas" from Tribune Bali (Indonesian)
"February 13-March 13, 27 Painters Held an Art Exhibition "Move on" in Ubud Bali" from Antara (Indonesian)
"Dozens Of Members Of The Karangasem Military Command, Participated In The Korem Anniversary Blood Donation" from Bali Prawara (Indonesian)
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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We only include news items from established media sources
We do not share rumors.
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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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