President Joko Widodo has instructed for a ‘special handling’ for the COVID-19 crisis in Bali, a senior minister said yesterday, even though the province is recording a declining number of daily cases.
“Specifically for Bali, during the president’s instructions, he has asked for special monitoring and intervention on the ground,” Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said during a press conference on Monday.
“As such, we will see for ourselves to see the challenges that are taking place, so that we can speed up the improving trend,” Luhut said.
Under the tiered Enforcement of Restrictions on Public Activities (PPKM) protocol, Bali is still categorized as a Level 4, which carries the tightest modes of restrictions previously seen in Emergency PPKM.
July and August saw some of the province’s highest daily caseload, which at one point reached an all-time high of over 1,900 new daily infections in mid-August. Official data suggests that the situation is improving, as daily cases have been reduced to the hundreds this past week.
Daily reports of deaths are still concerning, however, given that more than half of Bali’s total COVID-19 death toll of 3,494 people were recorded after July 1.
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