Recent developments show that Bali has been worryingly racking up quite a significant number of COVID-19 cases.
While Bali is one of the top three provinces with the highest vaccination rates, the island still isn’t safe from the airborne virus. Yesterday, 142 new cases were reported on the island, and the province has been consistently recording three-digit daily infection rates for the past month.
Bali currently ranks among the top five Indonesian provinces in terms of daily infection rates. As of yesterday, Bali has recorded a total of 164,272 cases, of whom 158,046 have recovered.
Separately, National COVID-19 Task Force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito said that Indonesia’s weekly infection rate has increased 15-fold in the last two months. Indonesia recorded an average of 2,000 cases per week back in June, but that rate has increased to 38,000 cases in early August.
Throughout the year, borders and travel regulations to Bali have been loosened for visitors, encouraging tourists to travel to the island in pandemic record numbers. Bali’s vaccination rollout has been strong to ensure that its tourism revival doesn’t come at a cost to public health.
Meanwhile, officials haven’t been too strict on the mask mandate since May – but perhaps it is now time to put those masks back on.
