Bali + World News & Views Editor Lawrence. He is a 23 year resident of Bali who is a General Manager of Hall Of Fame Award Winning Hotel + developer & realtor.
There has been several positive news articles the last few days, especially this week.
First the Govt. announced that they changed the rules for reopening malls, restaurants & tourist attractions. .
Then the Bali government announced that they are toying with opening the international airport.
https://baliworldnewsviews.blogspot.com/2021/09/bali-officials-plan-to-test-reopening.html
" Government has planned to partially reopen the international travel
corridor"
Today it was announced That Bali is considering imitating a recent reopening of our main competition in Asia which is Phuket Island.
The plan called "Phuket Sandbox" was initiated several months ago.
Since then over 26,000 visitors have visited the and only a recorded .03% rate of Covid-19 infections.
Dramatic drop in cases and deaths in Bali.
I can only assume that the the Bali Govt. is Opening up to domestic and international tourism because they are looking at are the same numbers that I've been tracking since we started to see a surge in cases and deaths in July sparked by the emergence of a new variant of COVID - 19.
As you can see by the chart below that I've been personally tracking the Bali weekly death toll based on information I deem is reliable but not guaranteed.
For the last four weeks we have seen a dramatic drop in the number of weekly deaths.
We hit a peak of 529 in one week ending August 13th. Since then, it has dropped significantly to only 116 in one week down from 200 during the week before or a 42% drop.
Although there's no way of guaranteeing this trend will continue we must remember that almost 60 % to 70% of Bali's population is vaccinated with at least one jab and probably over 50% have had at least two jabs include my entire staff and family.
I believe there is a good chance that the good news will continue to improve each week.
As it does the government will continue to most likely continue to ease PPKM protocol restrictions and eventually open the international airport to allow tourists who are biting at the bit to come back to Bali.
With many public schools in Bali open and a large percentage of the schools in Jakarta opening recently hopefully also us parents & children will be relieved of the severe pressure and tension caused by online schooling.Disclaimer: Please understand that all this can change if a new variant rears its ugly head, or any other unforeseen circumstances happen.
But for now, the future looks much brighter than it has been for months.
Hang in there and get ready for this to end sooner or later.
Indonesia considers imitating ‘Phuket Sandbox’ for Bali reopening
By Coconuts Bali Sep 9, 2021 | 4:22pm Bali time
File photo of a Balinese dancer. Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy
Bali may soon reopen to foreign travelers by adopting Thailand’s “Phuket Sandbox” scheme, the tourism minister said this week, in what appears to be Indonesia’s latest strategic plan to restart international tourism after a string of failed attempts.
“We are learning from the Phuket Sandbox with its one focus of significantly reducing local transmissions in Phuket, and this can be applied in Bali later on,” Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said, according to a report by Tempo.
The Phuket Sandbox refers to Thailand’s international tourism relaunch scheme, where fully vaccinated foreign travelers are essentially allowed to visit the country but must quarantine for 14 days within Phuket, before they are permitted to travel to other parts of Thailand.
Phuket’s popularity as a tourist destination puts it at a parallel with Bali, as both regions are desperately looking for ways to revive their devastated economy amid the pandemic.
Just to be clear, there’s currently no concrete date on when this would happen. For the time being, it appears that officials are merely discussing the possibility.
According to data from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), over 26,000 foreigners have landed in Phuket since the launch of the sandbox scheme on July 1. Eighty-three people, which amounts to about 0.3 percent, tested positive for the coronavirus within the sandbox.
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