Due to uncertainty in funding from the central government, a Bali official said that Bali province is set to continue subsidizing the quarantine of COVID-19 patients who are mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic in hotels using the regional budget.
Before, the program was briefly suspended.
In a letter issued last Thursday, regional secretary Dewa Made Indra instructed regents and mayors across Bali to temporarily suspend quarantining asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, including health workers falling under this category, from Feb. 19 onwards.
The patients were instructed to instead self-quarantine at their own homes, with supervision from the local COVID-19 task forces.
Indra said this is because funding for the program, which was under the purview of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), is only set until the end of this month.
I Made Rentin, secretary of the COVID-19 Task Force in Bali, said today that all regencies in Bali have agreed to use the regional budget to fund hotel quarantine for coronavirus patients.
“The quarantines will still be centralized. Eight regencies are ready to fund this. Denpasar City has yet to decide [and will] look for other alternatives,” Rentin said.
The official said that centralizing quarantines, whether in hotels or government facilities, can help tackle the spread of the coronavirus in Bali, as opposed to allowing each patient to self-isolate in their own homes and possibly transmitting the disease to the wider community.
