Bali Tourist Attractions Likely to Close

Another surge in Covid-19 cases on the island has led to the Bali Governer, Mr Koster stating that he wants all the tourist attractions closed again. There’s a good chance the island may once again be placed under strict lock down.

At a Covid-19 meeting in Jaya Saba the Governer stated ‘We’ve been observing over the last few weeks that the local transmission is spiking and the mortality rate from Covid-19 is increasing. I’m considering closing all tourist attractions like I did previously.’

The military have been patrolling the streets in Bali for some time now and fines of 100,000 rupiah are being handed out to people caught without a face mask. Unfortunately this hasn’t slowed down the rate of transmission. Face masks have been mandatory since April and authorities have also been handing out different punishments to those found non compliant. Punishments have included: being forced to buy rice for those heavily affected by the pandemic, doing push ups, or in some circumstances even being made to dance.

Update* Villagers in East Java were caught refusing to wear masks and then made to dig the graves for victims of Covid-19 in the hope it would teach them to wear one.

A leading virologist from Udayana University in Denpasar believes the island needs to be closed off to the other provinces to reduce the spread of the virus. To date Indonesia has records 229,000 cases with a recorded 9,100 deaths.

Many locals can’t imagine going through another lock down as stopping all tourism (again) will be absolutely crippling to an economy that is already under great stress. One local told The Bali Sun ‘I am getting a few customers per day to eat from domestic tourists but if that goes away, I just can’t even imagine what to do.’

In a statement last month Mr Koster said: ‘Bali cannot fail because it could adversely impact the image of Indonesia, including Bali, in the eyes of the world, which could prove counter-productive to the recovery of travel.’