Wednesday, January 20
Badung sending Response Teams to villages w/high Covid rates to enforce lockdowns + Hospitals in Klungkung & Buleleng double patient capacity as Badung runs out + Tests at Gilimanuk free again + more!
Good morning! Welcome to The Bali Beat for Wednesday, January 20. 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 foreigner community on the island 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: Indonesia set another record for deaths in a single day yesterday (308); it’s just the third time that the number has been above 300, with all of those occurrences happening this month. Total infections were back up over 10,000 again yesterday. Though it did not reach record territory, the country is on pace to set a new high for total new cases detected in a single month today- and there are still 11 days left to go in January. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released its monthly summary of Covid data and government response. You can view it here.
Click here to see the national numbers infographic and a Regency-by-Regency breakdown of yesterday’s local numbers.
The Big News
"Supervise Every Village Confirmed Covid-19, Badung Police Activate Operation to Raise Desa" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): The Head of Badung Police, AKBP Robi Septiadi, said that his party is currently improving "Operation Village Duck," following the Enactment of Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) in the Badung Regency. Operation Gerebek Desa is also tasked with maintaining community activities in every village that has been confirmed that the Covid-19 outbreak is quite high. "In this Operation Gerebek Desa, 50 joint personnel will be closely guarded to monitor community activities in and out of the village," said AKBP Robi... AKBP Robi again explained, according to the data from the Covid-19 Task Force, information was obtained that there was a confirmed increase of Covid-19 in the North Kuta and Mengwi Districts. "This is our concern. For that we will tighten the two districts by holding Operation Yustisi and Operation Village Duck," said AKBP Robi.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY UPDATE: In response to the government’s orders that hospitals add beds to accommodate the growing number of Covid patients, Klungkung Hospital has increased their number by 40 in two new rooms and Buleleng Hospital has added 49 beds in three new isolation rooms, more than doubling their capacity. In their announcement, officials at Klungkung Hospital said that they were extending the contracts of 40 medical & support personnel in order to handle the new patient load. Over in Badung, officials said that out of 127 isolation beds in hotels for asymptomatic people or patients with mild symptoms, only 34 remain.
"Rapid Test at Gilimanuk Subsidized, Free [for] Logistics Crews" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): Requirements to enter Bali via Gilimanuk Port are still using a negative antigen rapid test certificate. However, the cost is subsidized so that it is cheaper than the applicable rapid test fee. Meanwhile, for logistic transport crews entering Bali, the rapid antigen test is again free... The rapid antigen test has been subsidized by the Bali provincial government, so the cost for the PPDN independent rapid antigen test is Rp. 160,000 per person, from the normal price of Rp. 250,000 per person. As for the rapid antigen test for logistic transport crews for free. The free rapid antigen test for logistics transport crews was removed, but since the enactment of community activity restrictions (PPKM) it has been made free again.
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Other Headlines
"Kristen Gray to be Deported" from Indonesia Expat: On the evening of Tuesday 19th January, Bali’s Immigration Office released a statement confirming Gray would be removed from Indonesia. “The Tweets she made conflicted with the circular number 2 of the COVID-19 taskforce 2021 and immigration circular IMI-0103.gr.01.01.2021 regarding restricting access to Indonesia by foreigners,” confirmed the statement... The release goes on to say her tweets were problematic for people in that she claimed Indonesia is LGBT-friendly and that it was easy to access Indonesia during the pandemic. It says that she “endanger[ed] public security and order, or disrespect[ed] or disobey[ed] the law." According to the statement, Gray was summoned to Immigration offices through her sponsor, is being held in detention, and will be deported imminently.
Context: The IDN Times has a good breakdown of the entire situation, as well as quotes from her lawyer in their coverage which you can read here and here. In a statement given to iNews, Ms. Gray maintained that she had not broken any laws and that she was being deported for being queer. “I made a statement about LGBT and I was deported for being LGBT," she said. You can read the thread that caused this situation - which has since been deleted - archived on Twitter here.
Today’s Prokes Patrols
Media yesterday focused most of their coverage on health protocol enforcement actions on Denpasar, where local village leaders have declared that the current restrictions (PPKM) will be extended until Feb. 18. The most high-profile actions took place in Sanur, Kuta-Seminyak, Kerobokan, and Canggu to By Pass IB Mantra-Ketewel. Police visited several businesses where people were gathered after the 11:00pm curfew and administered random rapid antigen tests. In Denpasar proper, 38 people were cited by a patrol for not wearing masks, and the Head of Public Order for the city’s police promised that increased patrols would continue in response to directions given by the government.
"Bali Prepares 532,000 Vaccines for Simultaneous Rabies Vaccination" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): "In order to accelerate the eradication of rabies, serious and coordinated efforts are needed to maximize the implementation of rabies vaccination, especially for handling wild dogs and dogs that are kept on abandonment," said the Head of the Bali Provincial Agriculture and Food Security Service IB Wisnuardhana... Based on the data, Wisnuardhana continued, the number of dog populations in Bali was recorded at around 647,386 dogs, scattered in all districts / cities and mostly in Buleleng Regency (109,582 dogs), Denpasar City (89,796 dogs), Gianyar Regency (88,643 dogs) , Badung (86,462 individuals), Karangasem (74,148 individuals), Tabanan (71,062 individuals), Bangli (59,345 individuals), Jembrana (46,955 individuals), and Klungkung Regency (21,393 individuals). The dog population is estimated to comprise about 10 percent of dogs that are well kept in kennels in the house, the rest are stray dogs and dogs that are kept in an open position.
"50% of Schools in Klungkung Verified Prokes, Immediately Implement Face-to-Face Learning" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): The Klungkung Regency Education Office is committed to making efforts to accelerate the start of face-to-face learning. Until Tuesday, verification of health protocols had been carried out in 50% of schools in Klungkung. Head of the Klungkung Education Office I Ketut Sujana revealed that currently his party is conducting a marathon verification of health protocols for 289 schools from kindergarten to junior high schools throughout Klungkung Regency. "We have verified the readiness of schools to implement health protocols. Now we are continuing the process," said Ketut Sujana. "We are targeting this face-to-face learning to be implemented in late January or early February. This also looks at the situation and conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic in Klungkung."
"PHDI and MDA Bali Issue Circular of Nyepi Celebration, Ogoh-Ogoh Ceremony is Abolished" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): The celebration of Nyepi Day in Caka year 1943 in March will return without the Ogoh-Ogoh parade or parade the same as last year considering that the atmosphere is still in the Covid-19 pandemic where there is no sign that the virus will subside. Chairman of Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia Bali, I Gusti Ngurah Sudiana, accompanied by Bendesa Agung if the Traditional Village Council Bali, Ida Panglingsir Putra Sukahet, emphasized that in a series of Ceremonies Malasti, Tawur, Pangrupukan to be carried out with due regard to limiting the number of participants participating in the procession of at most 50 people.
"Denpasar Court Reduces Jerinx’s Hate Speech Sentence to 10 Months" from Coconuts: Balinese musician I Gede Ari Astina, most popularly known as Jerinx, had his sentence reduced to 10 months following an appeal, an official from the Denpasar District Court confirmed today. In November, Jerinx was found guilty of spreading hate speech against the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) through social media and was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
"Slaughtered Pork Population Declines, Pork Prices Soar" from Bali Express (Indonesian): Although the demand for pork from the tourism industry is not very high, in early 2021, the price of pork is still soaring. As of last Tuesday, the price of pork per kiligram in Badung market reached Rp 95,000 from Rp 45,000 per kilogram... The current high price of pork is acknowledged by traders in Badung market because the supply of pork from slaughterhouses (RPH) has decreased. "This is because the price of live pigs has also been high, starting from Rp. 6 million for medium-sized cut pork," said Rai Arsajaya, a pork trader in the Badung market. The high price of live pigs, continued Rai, is because the pig population has decreased since four months ago because many piglets were infected with the virus a few months ago. So that currently the pig population is very small.
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 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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