Vice President Encourages Bali To Achieve “Herd Immunity” To Awakening Tourism

JAKARTA - Vice President, Ma'ruf Amin, has urged the Bali Provincial Government to accelerate vaccination of local communities so that communal immunity or herd immunity in tourist areas can be established immediately.

"With the achievement of communal immunity, the tourism industry will immediately rise because it provides a sense of security and comfort for tourists to visit Bali", said Vice President Ma'ruf while chairing a coordination meeting with Bali Governor, Wayan Koster, and the Bali Province COVID-19 Handling Task Force by online.

"It is necessary to ensure that herd immunity can be achieved immediately. In addition to protecting the Balinese themselves, meeting the vaccination target will help convince tourists that Bali has become an area that is not only beautiful but also safe", said Vice President Ma'ruf, quoted by Antara, Thursday, 29 July.

The vice president also encouraged the Bali Provincial Government and the local COVID-19 Task Force to increase testing, tracking, and treatment or 3T (testing, tracing, treatment) to the public.

Although the testing in Bali has met the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Vice President said the number of active COVID-19 cases in the area is still far above WHO standards.

"It needs to be reviewed and adjusted to the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs that if the positivity rate is above 25 percent, then the number of tests needs to be increased to 15,000 per 1,000,000 population", he explained.

Meanwhile, regarding the implementation of vaccination in Bali, Wayan Koster reported that the first dose of injection for the community has reached the target of more than 70 percent of the population of Bali.

"Those who have been vaccinated with the first injection, we report that they have exceeded three million people, namely 3,046,886 people", said Wayan.

Furthermore, the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has been given to 870,838 people, or almost 27 percent of the target.

"The enthusiasm of the public to take part in this vaccination is very high. The vaccination is Banjar-based and community-based so that the acceleration can be carried out and the target can be achieved", he said.