Wednesday, January 6
Vaccinations set to begin on Jan. 13 w/Pres. Widodo + Swab test requirement for entry to island extended to Jan. 8 + Bangli backtracks, reopens schools; Karangasem wants to follow + more!
Good morning! Welcome to The Bali Beat for Wednesday, January 6 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.
I happily put this newsletter together Monday through Friday as a public service, and it will be free so long as the current emergency lasts. *A paid subscription is NOT required to access this content.* However, if you would like to support my work, please consider making a donation of US$5/month by becoming a contributing subscriber at the link above. Or if you prefer to make a one-time donation - in any amount - click here.
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
"Jokowi Scheduled to Receive Sinovac's COVID-19 Vaccine On Jan 13" from Antara: "The president will be vaccinated on Wednesday, January 13, and the procedure for the process will be discussed this Friday (Jan 8)," Head of the Presidential Secretariat Heru Budi Hartono stated in Jakarta on Tuesday. The process of President Jokowi receiving the COVID-19 vaccination will be broadcast live. "This is so that the people can see it immediately, and the process offers a sense of enthusiasm. The vaccination can be continued in the regions as well, at least in provinces and big cities," Hartono stated... The phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine are yet underway in Bandung before the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) can issue an emergency use authorization. According to the head of BPOM, results of the phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine will come out in the first week of January 2021. The BPOM will also obtain data on clinical trials of the vaccine conducted in Brazil and Turkey.
"Entering Bali Mandatory Swab Extended, Valid until January 8 According to SE Task Force" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): The policy to enter Bali by air, the negative swab must be extended. After the Circular Letter (SE) of the Governor of Bali expires, the Bali Provincial Government is now referring to the SE Covid-19 Handling Task Force, and enforcing this policy until January 8, 2021. When asked whether the policy was extended, the Governor of Bali , Wayan Koster , said he would still coordinate with the Central Government. "For this, let me coordinate with the Coordinating Minister, the Minister of Transportation, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Tourism," said Koster.
"Bangli Begins Face-to-Face Learning in Bali" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): Bangli Regency opened face-to-face lessons that officially started on Monday. There are a number of Standard Operating Standards and Procedures (SOPs) that have been determined. The education unit must have requested a parental consent letter that the child is willing to attend face-to-face learning in schools with strict health protocols. Face-to-face learning in education units will be monitored and evaluated at any time and if there are school residents who are indicated by Covid-19 a face-to-face learning closure will be implemented and learning will be carried out online again.
Context: Bangli’s decision to reopen their schools contradicts the statement released late on Sunday by Ketut Ngurah Boy Jayawibawa, Head of the Bali Province Youth and Sports Education Agency (Disdikpora), who had declared that all regency and city Education Agencies on the island had decided together to continue remote learning. However, Bangli is within its rights to make this decision. The rules for school reopenings laid out by the Ministry of Education back in November put the decision on whether to restart face-to-face learning into the hands of provincial governments; and shortly after that announcement was made, Governor Koster declared that he would devolve that authority to each regency’s government, so long as they followed specific guidelines. After seeing Bangli’s schools opening on Monday, Head of Karangasem's Disdikpora, Gusti Ngurah Kartika, said yesterday that he wants to follow their lead and reopen their own schools- but only after their local Covid-19 Task Force gives the OK. "The ball is currently in the Covid-19 Task Force’s court. We are only mentors. If indeed tomorrow we want to go down [to check the schools’ readiness] we will accompany him," he said. It is not clear when - or if - any other regencies will reopen their schools, or if Governor Koster will continue his policy of allowing each regency’s government to determine whether students can return to their classrooms.
>> Classifieds <<
Business is tough in the best of times, but these days- Wow. Thankfully, there’s a supportive spirit among the foreigners who remain in Bali; this newsletter is proof. If you’ve got a product or service that needs local support to succeed, let this community know about it here.
Other Headlines
"Only 2,609 Teachers Have Conducted Swabs, Which Have Now Been Requested for Rapid Antigen Tests" from Radar Bali (Indonesian): All teachers in Badung Regency from all levels of education have been required to take a swab test. According to data from the Disdikpora, there are 6,284 teachers in Badung consisting of 2,451 civil servant teachers and 3,833 non civil servants. However, only 2,609 teachers have carried out the swab test, with 74 people testing positive so far. This Swab is actually a program from the Badung Diskes for all employees in the Badung Regency Government. However, Disdikpora Badung asked for tests for teachers because the plan was to do face-to-face learning. But the face-to-face learning has been postponed for an indefinite period. For those who have not received swab service, they will be transferred to a rapid antigen test.
"The Availability of Beds At Health Facilities in Bali is 1,308" from The Bali Tribune (Indonesian): "Currently there are 1,308 beds, including the ICU. And the level of availability of bed facilities for isolation patients reaches 58% per day," said Head of the Bali Provincial Health Office, Dr. Suarjaya Ketut. And for the Bad Occupancy Rate (BOR) in the ICU room as much as 59%. Indeed, in recent weeks the use of bed facilities has increased. In response, the Bali Provincial Government has a strategy of reopening as many as 40 beds in several referral hospitals.
Context: At a separate event, Dewa Rai, Spokesperson for Denpasar's Covid-19 Task Force, noted that occupancy at Wangaya Hospital has reached 70%. The number of active cases has risen dramatically over the last week, from 936 on Dec. 28 to 1,195 yesterday- a 28% jump. It is coming dangerously close to the all-time high of 1,361, which was reached on September 13, when the island was in the throes of the post-August holiday wave. Because officials do not regularly release hospitalization or ICU admittance rates, we don’t know what proportion of the people who’ve recently contracted the virus are asymptomatic or have mild cases, which would caused them to be housed in one of the island’s isolation hotels, and how many have been admitted to hospital. As a result, we do not know how quickly local hospitals are filling as a result of the current surge in cases.
"Hospitals in Jabodetabek, Yogyakarta, and East Java Full" from Indonesia Expat: An emergency doctor who is also a volunteer for COVID-19 reporting, Tri Maharani, has said that, based on data recorded on 1-5th January 2021, intensive care unit (ICU) beds for the COVID-19 referral hospitals in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Jabodetabek) are full. “Yesterday, it turned out that the ICU capacity was full and there were several hospitals with isolation facilities but had no ventilators,” he said. The bed shortages are not only in the Jabodetabek area. ICU hospitals in East Java such as Dr. Soetomo Hospital is also full. Likewise, hospitals in Yogyakarta are reported to be full.
"Tourist Visits to Bali During Nataru Holidays Reach 366,000" from Bali Puspa News (Indonesian): it turns out that the number of tourists who come to Bali Island via air, land, and sea transportation has quite large, namely 366,666 people. The arrival of these tourists was recorded from December 17 to January 3, 2021. “In general, tourism business service establishments comply with health protocols in an orderly and disciplined manner. So that until now, there has been no significant increase in positive cases of Covid-19," explained the Governor of Bali, Wayan Koster.
Context: Original holiday travel estimates had predicted that 387,000 tourists would visit the island via Ngurah Rai Airport alone. (A forecast for total visits by all travel methods was not given at the time.) Numbers released yesterday by airport authorities said that only 119,030 passengers arrived on the island between Dec. 17 - Jan. 3. Meanwhile, numbers released yesterday from Gilimanuk Port officials show that a total of 62,846 people left the island between Jan. 1-4. (An initial estimate released on Monday had said that 16,000 people had exited the island over the weekend.) Total numbers of ferry passengers covering the entire holiday period have not yet been published.
"6,716 Foreigners Apply for ITAS and ITAP" from Nusa Bali (Indonesian): Throughout 2020, the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of Bali Province recorded 1,092,257 foreign nationals (WNA) who entered the Island of the Gods. Of the total, 6,716 applied for limited stay permits (ITAS) and permanent residency permits (ITAP). The breakdown was 5,948 requested the ITAS, while 768 asked for the ITAP. From January 1 to December 31, 2020, there were 1,092,257 foreigners who entered / arrived in Bali. Meanwhile, those who left the Island of the Gods were 1,245,845 people.
"National Police Deploy 83,566 Personnel to Guard the Distribution of Corona Vaccines" from Antara (Indonesian): The National Police together with related agencies have carried out security since the vaccine arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport and then moved to Biofarma which will then be sent to various provinces, then distributed to the district and city levels, said Head of the Public Information Bureau of the National Police's Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Pol Rusdi Hartono.
"Jakarta Socialite Reportedly Booked Entire Flight to Bali As Precaution Against COVID-19" from Coconuts: Jakarta socialite-slash-drug convict Richard Muljadi said he recently booked an entire flight to Bali for fear of getting infected with the coronavirus while up in the air. In a series of stories posted on Instagram yesterday, Richard said that both him and his wife, Shalvynne Chang, are both “super paranoid” when it comes to COVID-19. “Had to make sure no one else [is on] this flight. We ain’t flying unless it’s just us,” Richard wrote.
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.
Our standards
We only include news items from established media sources
We do not share rumors.
We do not include opinion pieces or forecasts.
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.
For any questions, comments or tips, please contact us at newsletter@migrationmedia.net.