Throughout July and the first part of August, the number of new instances displayed in Bali was reduced to 27 instances consistent with August 10, with an average of 40 new instances consistent with the day for seven days.
But two weeks after the resumption of domestic travel, cases on the island began to increase, with five record days culminating in 198 new cases on September 4. As of Tuesday, Bali had 6,385 cases shown and 116 deaths.
Across the country, the total number of instances is 196,989, with 8,130 deaths.
To enter Bali, they must provide a negative result of immediate antibody verification that is not longer than 14 days.
They also do not show external symptoms of the virus, such as dry cough or fever, however, Dr. Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist who helped formulate Indonesia’s pandemic reaction for 20 years, says the detection protocol has probably allowed more instances to enter Bali.
“Rapid antibody testing kits do not detect existing infections. They are only detected if a user becomes inflamed a few weeks or months ago,” he said.
He also said that the tests are “not specific” to COVID-19.
“If your check is positive, you might have stuck a different coronavirus than your dog. “For this explanation, Australia, England and India have arrested them because they are not accurate. “
The World Health Organization in Indonesia said the use of antibody tests gave travelers with non-reactive effects a “false sense of safety”, as the sensitivity of COVID-19 tests reaches levels of 34% to 80%.
The Indonesian Association of Specialists in Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine estimates the accuracy of these tests at less than 50%.
Budiman says the way to prevent domestic tourists with COVID-19 from spreading the virus in Bali is to replace the detection protocol with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) control, the ‘gold standard’ used to track the Indonesian citizens and permanent citizens returning from abroad.
This is an opinion shared by Professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika of Udayana University, Bali’s most experienced virologist.
“Since February I have said that immediate antibody controls are not suitable for detecting other people coming to Bali. It’s a reasonable solution for detecting patients in the hospital, and if the patient is reactive, they want to perform a PCR check to check if they’re infected,” he says.
A reaction to control means that the user has antibodies opposed to a virus, but if a user reacts to control, it means they have the virus.
“They interpret the effects of the way,” Mahardika added. ” Those whose effects are not reactive deserve to have PCR tests on site or quarantined. “
Ahmad Utomo, an independent representative for molecular biology in Jakarta who specializes in diagnosing lung infections, said the effects of immediate antibody tests were misinterpreted in Indonesia.
“If a user is reactive, they produce their antibodies and I would feel safer with them than those whose control effects are inactive,” he said.
Utomo also said coVID-19 detection with immediate antibody testing is a bad policy.
“They are not used for screening. They are an epidemiological tool used to examine the burden of disease in fast areas. I don’t know why they insist on them. “
But he is also skeptical of whether the outbreak of cases shown in Bali is similar to testing, and believes that the jump is more of a mirror image of the fact that other people do not adhere to the rules designed to prevent the spread of the virus.
“As in East Java, where instances are multiplying, this is the behavior of the masses,” he said.
“People organize public demonstrations, reject any kind of evidence, refuse to wear masks, and don’t practice physical distance because they don’t know the disease is real. And it’s not entirely his fault.
“Approximately 80% of cases in Indonesia are asymptomatic. Of the remaining 20%, only part is under intensive care and the public does not see them. It’s not like other people are falling dead in the streets. “
The Indonesian government has not explained why, given reliability considerations, immediate antibody testing remains an obligation.
The Bali provincial government, the Bali Disaster Mitigation Agency and the Department of Health referred consultations to the Bali COVID-19 implementation group, which forwarded the programmes to the Department of Health.
The National Working Group on COVID-19 and the National Disaster Management Agency of Jakarta did not answer Al Jazeera’s questions.
On Monday, Bali announced that, as a component of its efforts to involve the pandemic, it would begin imposing fines of Rs 100,000 ($6. 77) on citizens who wear face masks.
Budiman, the epidemiology expert, believes the government took the resolution because “they have already purchased millions of quick antibody tests from China and used the actions. “
But others say the use of is related to the desire to move the economy.
On the online page of The Conversation University, Indonesian experts at the University of Melbourne, Tim Mann and Tim Lindsey, said the government feared that the suffering economy would “drive further complaints about its handling of the crisis and, in all likelihood, social unrest. “
The economic effect was felt in Bali, where estimates show that at least one part and perhaps up to 80% of gross domestic product is similar to tourism.
On 1 September, President Joko Widodo identified Indonesia’s province with “the biggest economic downturn is Bali,” with a negative expansion of 11 in line with the penny.
Allowing domestic tourists to return to Bali is meant to provide an indispensable economic livelihood for the island.
The price of antibodies is around $10, according to what corresponds to the child.
But PCR testing ranges from $83 to $179, making them prohibitive for many middle-class Indonesians who make up most of the country’s domestic tourism market.
“If everyone got PCR testing, the charge to a circle of relatives could be only $ 1,000,” a Bali hotel executive told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
“In that case, no one would come. “