Rather read? Here’s the transcript:
What is the Covid-19 situation in Bali? It is March 18th, 2021, and we have a changing of the seasons it would appear, on more than one front.
It’s midday, it’s still rainy season, high tide, a little bit light offshore, not much swell but some fun little peaks out there though…I’ve been watching guys. It’s hot as hell here so I’m gonna make this not too long I think, right off the cuff.
Changing seasons in Bali, we’re at the tail end of the rainy season but we are also I think, I hope, coming to the end of this crappy Covid-19 situation too.
I have no dates to offer you, I don’t think anyone does maybe anywhere in the world actually, but some developments have happened here in the last week.
Now at the end of this I’ll touch on a related situation if you’re interested in coming to Bali for an extended period, but first the C-19 situation, the Covid situation.
So the president of Indonesia, Jokowi–Joko Widodo–was up in Ubud a few days ago and the the bottom line is they’re trying to get some green zones going here in Bali starting with Ubud, Sanur and Nusa Dua, meaning that they’re going to very aggressively be vaccinating people who live in those areas, so they can show very low rates of transmission in those areas and turn them into so-called green zones.
Now conspicuously Badung, which is the regency that includes Kuta behind me all the way up to Canggu about four or five miles in that direction, is not included yet in these green zone plans as far as I’ve heard. You can be sure that probably sooner rather than later Badung will be included in these green zone plans but as of right now they are not.
However, if you were thinking about a trip to Ubud in 2021–can’t book your airplane tickets yet, they’re still not doing social visas or visas on arrival yet–but this is the plan. And, I think it’s more than a plan now.
They are pushing forward with the vaccines: Sinovac has been here and getting distributed for a couple months now. Astra Zeneca is in Indonesia and some amount is on its way to Bali. I think they’re going to heavily weight Bali as a receiver of the Astra Zeneca vaccine because tourism has been hit so hard here. It’s such a big part of the economy that Bali has been disproportionately very hit hard.
In other places–you know my wife is from North Sumatra–life looks fairly normal, there isn’t a lot of money coming in there through tourism. (Some of course at Lake Toba etc, Berstagi, Bukit Lawang, but you know Bali is is is very heavily weighted towards tourism obviously so they’re going to do what they can to dig Bali out of this hole as quickly as they can.
So they say and I personally believe that they will aggressively approach this–the number I heard and you know the Astra Zeneca–the vaccines they don’t last forever right? The number I heard was by June quote/unquote they would try to vaccinate two million people on the island of Bali.
There’s about four and a half million people on this island, so that’s roughly 20,000 a day average for about a hundred days. It’s very ambitious, I believe they can do it–I certainly hope they can do it–you will see things really start to happen if they can vaccinate that many people that fast on this island.
By the way numbers are already dropping! I don’t think they’re dropping because the vaccine’s being distributed, but Indonesia-wide and also in Bali compared to a couple months ago the new daily cases are way down, by more than half.
It varies of course but but the numbers are definitely down. It’s very encouraging. I don’t know why that is either but at any rate between the numbers possibly starting to go down organically and also them starting to get very aggressive with the vaccines, I think things are looking up.
Don’t buy airplane tickets yet! But I think in the second half of 2021 especially if you’re looking to come to Ubud, Sanur or Nusa Dua you might be in luck.
I’m going to include a link in the YouTube description at the bottom to Jackie Pomeroy’s Covid-19 Facebook group. Updated every day, it’s just the facts, she aggregates all the newspapers both in English and Bahasa Indonesia and puts the info there. The numbers from the government and everything so it’s no speculation and rumor, just numbers.
So I’d suggest that if you’re thinking about a trip to Bali in 2021 that you definitely go ahead and join that Facebook group; I think it’s private but she’ll approve you and you’ll know when when you can start buying those airplane tickets!
I’ve said it before: 2021 is going to be an incredibly good year to visit Bali, I mean as welcoming as everybody always is anyway, it’s going to be even more so in 2021–and let me say Indonesia generally–2021 is going to be a great year to visit Indonesia generally.
I’d really encourage you to come when it opens up and as the numbers start to go down–I don’t think they’re gonna open it up until they have a real handle on the numbers Indonesia-wide and in Bali. You’ll hear about it. And I haven’t made a video in about six months–I haven’t had a hell of a lot to to report, not not much has changed, you know?–but things are changing.
The vaccines came online a couple of months ago and that’s wonderful, but again this was a different kind of announcement the other day: very aggressive in the next few months.
So let’s watch it and I’ll be making more videos…oh i’m running out of video here but also: if you’ve thought about coming to Bali as a digital nomad or digital expat, staying longer and managing online enterprises or businesses, not getting a job here but managing online businesses, I’ve heard more and more there’s a good chance that a digital nomad visa of some kind is in the works, so stay tuned for that as well.
That will really change the game: folks will be able to come and stay a lot longer, freely, and work their online enterprises, hopefully employ Indonesians too. I just wanted to throw that in.
So look, thanks for watching, I’m getting out of this sun before I pass out! This is Tom from Wage Freedom on the Covid-19 situation in Bali in March 2021. Hopefully things are looking! Please subscribe to my YouTube channel if you want more updates like this, and I’d appreciate a like on the video!
Also if you have specific questions leave them in the comments, I do answer them all myself and I’m happy to do that for you okay? Just just go ahead and leave any questions you have in the comments–thanks very very much for watching Tom from Wage Freedom have a great day.