Indonesia COVID-19 Czar, who serves as Minister of Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has called on the residents of Bali to abstain from holding religious or cultural ceremonies temporarily.
Current estimates state that 86.0% of people living in Bali belong to the Bali-Hindu religion, 10% are Moslems, and 2.25% are Christians.
As quoted in Beritabali.com, Luhut is concerned that with the daily report of new COVID-19 cases in Bali exceeding 1,000, there is the real possibility for the Island to become a new infectious cluster.
Luhut’s comments were made during an inspection visit to Denpasar and Buleleng in Bali on Thursday, 12 August 2021, where he viewed facilities for centralized quarantine of COVID patients.
The Minister observed that Bali still fails to show herd immunity kicking in despite restrictions on public movement and an aggressive inoculation program.
Commenting further, Luhut said: “There is a single key for Bali. If vaccination levels are sufficiently good, then the problem becomes isolation (quarantine) centers. As many people as possible infected with COVID-19 need to be placed in isolation. In Buleleng (North Bali), hundreds of people have been treated and released from isolation, and not a single one has died.”
