Bali puts entire village on lockdown after hundreds tested in Bangli regency

JAKARTA, May 4, 2020, The Jakarta Post. The Bali administration has made the decision to expand the area of lockdown from one of three hamlets in Abuan village, Bangli regency, to the entire village, The Jakarta Post reported.

The decision was made after rapid tests indicated it was probable that hundreds of its residents were infected by the coronavirus. All the villagers are required to stay at home but will be provided meals three times a day.

The decision to isolate the whole village – home to 2,640 residents – was made on Friday after the authority put one of the village’s hamlets, Serokadan, on lockdown on Thursday.

Earlier, the administration found eight of the village’s residents contracted the virus through local transmission after reportedly coming into contact with a migrant worker who had just returned from abroad.

The Bali provincial COVID-19 task force took 1,200 blood samples from residents of the hamlet on Thursday, of which more than 400 returned “reactive” results after rapid testing. The team also took swab samples of 126 people, with all results coming back negative on Friday.

“Sanglah Hospital Laboratory has taken swab samples from 126 residents whose rapid tests show they were reactive to the PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test. We already got the test results and all came back negative,” said the task force’s executive chairman, Dewa Made Indra.

The swab tests are being conducted in several phases due to the limited testing capacity of the laboratory. “On Friday morning, we took another 183 swab samples for the PCR test. We are conducting the test in phases,” Dewa Made Indra said.

On Friday, additional rapid testing was conducted on 669 residents, with only four people showing “reactive” results.

As of Friday, Bali had 235 coronavirus cases with four fatalities. Eight of the total number of cases were foreigners.