Bali Governor Wayan Koster yesterday said that the perceived lack of local transmission in the province means that Bali still has a long way to go before it implements the central government’s Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) policy and will instead emphasize on restricting access to the island.
Bali recorded five additional cases yesterday afternoon, bringing the island’s total to 86. This includes 20 recoveries and two deaths of foreign nationals.
“We continue to monitor every day and actually the local transmission is low in Bali, and so we are far from implementing PSBB. I don’t think we should be talking about this yet, I can assure you that’s still a long way to go, don’t bring about a scary situation,” Koster said yesterday during a live press conference in Denpasar.
Koster explained that most confirmed cases in Bali are imported, referring to Indonesian migrant workers and cruise ship crew members who have recently returned from abroad, as well as those who came to Bali from other regions in the country. As of April 12, the governor noted that only eight confirmed COVID-19 patients were infected because of local transmissions.
“The strategy that the [Bali COVID-19] task force has been doing is to strengthen the access points in Ngurah Rai Airport and Gilimanuk Port,” Koster said, adding that strict rapid test screenings have been conducted there.
There have been considerable doubts over the true number of cases in Bali, including over the government’s transparency and ability to detect the novel coronavirus, especially when coupled with the fact that the island is a popular destination for international travelers.
In January alone, Bali welcomed more than 528,000 foreign tourists, including over 111,000 from China, where the COVID-19 outbreak had started.
Indonesia banned all incoming flights from China on Feb. 5, but most international travel still carried on as normal that month, and nearly 364,000 foreign tourists visited the island then.
Read more news and updates from Bali here.
