17 November, 2020

Author: Nita CJ

I’ve been walking among eggshells recently and trying to watch what comes out of my mouth as the pandemic subject is something so sensitive that when we try to say one thing, it might be interpreted as another. There are so many opinions out there regarding how countries and leaders should tackle the problem; I am not here for it.

I am here for the good news, there are two good news that makes traveling might be possible again in the near future and I am absolutely stoked about it!

On to the first good news!

The Indonesian borders are slowly opening up again with limited quota and strict health protocols in place. As of early November, the immigration published new regulations which allow foreigners to enter the country within certain requirements.

Tourists may come under the e-visa for 60 days and extendable up to 4 times (30 days each) and needs to be sponsored by a legal entity (company, organization, etc) or individually by an Indonesian citizen. A company may sponsor up to 20 people at a time. The other important requirement is a health certificate stating negative PCR test result should be presented upon entering the Indonesian border.

The full regulation was published in an interactive PDF which I think is a great tool created by the government. If you’d like to download the file, click here to access it. Disclaimer: it’s only available in Indonesian so you might need to manually translate the content if you can’t speak Indonesian.

The other good news is that Pfizer and BioNTech, two pharma firms, have announced that the vaccine on which they have been collaborating is more than 90% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of covid-19. The vaccine is being tested on an ethnically diverse group of 43,000 people and the trial is not yet complete. The results announced so far are based on an interim analysis conducted by an independent data-monitoring group. The positive results raise the chances of success for other vaccines that are in development. This matters, because one covid vaccine will not be enough.

If you’d like to read more about this vaccine by Pfizer, click here to read it in The Economist.

PHEW! I could see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel finally, it’s tiny but it means there’s hope that we could travel again, not that it’s the first priority but I’m sure many people including me have been sick and tired of staying home in the past 8 months and cannot wait to be able to roam the planet again.

Crossing my fingers!

Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!  Can’t wait!

History

Expert Led

SeaTrek Updates

Culture

Adventure Fun

Conservation

Wildlife

Underwater

Seafaring