Police Declare Canggu and North Kuta a ‘Red Zone’
Beritabali.com quotes AKPB Roby Septiadi, the Chief of the Badung Regency Police Precinct, saying that North Kuta and Mengwi are now “red zones” due to the high risk of coronavirus infections, with most cases occurring in “family clusters.”
Septiadi made his comments accompanied by Bali’s Deputy-Chief of Police Brigadier General Dr. Roycke Harry Langie at an event where the police distributed 5,000 free face masks in the North Kuta village of Canggu on Wednesday, 3 February 2021.
The Badung Regency’s top policeman explained that Canggu was selected to receive the free face masks based on police data showing the greatest number of violations of COVID-19 Health Protocols occur in that area. Police have pledged to redouble their efforts to remind people of the need to wear a mask properly.
He continued, saying that the public must wear face masks and maintain physical distance to thwart the spread of the virus. “In this way, we can directly reduce the number of positive cases in the Badung Regency, especially in the Canggu area in North Bali,” Septiadi added.
Septiadi said that predominantly the new clusters of COVID-19 infections in the Badung Regency are in family units. The rapid rate of new infections is due to the publics’ failure to obey established health protocols. When the public is careless in following guidelines on cleanliness, masks, and physical distancing, participate in religious rituals, serve tourist visitors, and other activities, they can foster new infection clusters.
The head of the Badung Precinct Police called on foreign nationals living in Canggu to follow all the rules and protocols established to combat COVID-19.
Robi Septiadi confessed that the police face problems dealing with foreign nationals who fail to obey health protocols. As a result, police tend to focus their enforcement activities on local citizens. “So, as regards foreign nationals, we are asking for the help of the foreign consulates and embassies to socialize the health protocols to foreigners living in Bali,” he said.
Police are also working with Hindu religious leaders to coordinate steps to reduce the risk of contamination to those participating in religious ceremonies, including limiting the number permitted to attend such gatherings to 50 people.
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