Bali has canceled all Christmas and New Year’s Eve events as well as firework displays as part of the strategy to maintain the pandemic under control announced an official from Bali’s COVID-19 Task Force.
The government will also use the PeduliLindungi app to limit the number of visitors to the island’s nightlife venues, which now will have to shut their doors at 1:00 am during both celebrations.
“Parties are prohibited, [fireworks] are not allowed. It’s clear that when there are parties the euphoria will be too intense,” said the officer.
“This is what we will not allow. There should be no fireworks party or any specialized party. No one is allowed to invite famous artists [to their businesses].”
Those who dare to skip the regulations will face fines of up to IDR1 million and could get their business permanently closed.
However, not all of the news is negative. The government has also decided to cancel the blanket application of the “Community Activities Restrictions Enforcement” known as (PPKM) level 3 across the country.
The decision was backed up by vaccination rates. In Java and Bali, 76 percent of the population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 56 percent has been fully vaccinated.
“For comparison, no Indonesian people had been vaccinated during the Christmas and New Year period last year. The results of the serosurvey also show that Indonesians already have high levels of COVID-19 antibodies,” said the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs this week.
Regardless of the good numbers, after nine weeks into the reopening, only 153 travelers have applied for tourist visas and no flight has touched down on Indonesian lands.
“There is no clear statement from the government of what it is trying to achieve, a process for getting there, or simple guidelines for would-be tourists,” wrote statistician Jackie Pomeroy on her famous ‘Bali Covid-19 Update’ Facebook page.