Locally transmitted cases now make up half of the total number of COVID-19 cases in Bali, according to the latest official data, with Denpasar city recording the highest spike in such cases despite implementing restrictions.
Bali reported 25 new cases yesterday, bringing the provincial total to 582, which includes 373 recoveries and five deaths. Locally transmitted cases now make up 50.17 percent of all cases in the province.
Of the newly recorded cases, twelve were patients in Denpasar, comprising eleven cases identified as locally transmitted cases. The COVID-19 Task Force in Denpasar said five of the patients in the city were identified after results of their swab tests came back positive. They had undergone the tests to obtain the required COVID-19-free statement of health for travel.
“Five of the [newly confirmed patients] were detected because they were trying to obtain a statement of health, and the results came out positive after they were tested,” Gede Rai said.
Denpasar is the only region in Bali currently implementing the Restrictions on People’s Activities (PKM) protocol that covers a number of aspects, such as restrictions on work and religious activities, and requiring people coming in and out of the city to provide relevant official letters and/or documents to indicate a clear purpose of their visit.
“We need awareness and utmost discipline from all members of the community to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission,” Gede Rai said.
“Let us all reduce our travels and activities outside the home, as well as direct contact with other people, because we do not know who’s carrying the virus or not, and for that we need awareness, honesty, and discipline from everyone,” he continued.
The Bali provincial government does not disclose information on daily testing, and a general lack of testing capacity has been an issue across Indonesia since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak. To date, the country has conducted only close to 270,000 tests.
In April, President Joko Widodo promised that 10,000 tests would be performed each day in the world’s fourth most populous country, but testing rates on average have hovered at less than half that figure.
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