• Bali to get international hospital, foreign doctors - Asia Times
    https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/bali-to-get-international-hospital-foreign-doctors

    Bali to get international hospital, foreign doctors
    New facility to provide top care for Indonesians who get treatment in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the US
    Perturbed at Indonesians spending nearly US$7 billion a year on medical treatment abroad, the government is building an international hospital on a newly-closed golf course in Bali that will allow foreign doctors to actively practice in Indonesia for the first time. “If this comes to fruition, we expect that no more of our people will travel overseas to get health treatment,” President Joko Widodo told a December 28 ground-breaking ceremony for a project that is being undertaken in partnership with America’s famed Mayo Clinic. According to official statistics, more than two million wealthy Indonesians seek healthcare treatment in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and the United States in preference to local hospitals, many of which are not as bad as they are painted.Only last month, former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew to Minnesota for treatment of early-stage prostate cancer at the Mayo Clinic’s Rochester headquarters after consultation with his own team of Indonesian doctors. But while Singapore’s much-vaunted health system, in particular, plays an important role in providing second-opinion diagnosis and specialist care unavailable at home, many Indonesians travel there for easily-treatable minor ailments as well.
    That is until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The case for an international hospital became more compelling when Singapore closed its doors to overseas visitors, shutting down its billion-dollar medical tourism industry and ruining the island’s reputation as a reliable safe haven. The new facility is being built on the 41-hectare Bali Beach Golf Course, a 50-year-old, nine-hole layout at the northern end of Sanur, the sleepy outpost favored by foreign pensioners and mostly elderly tourists on Bali’s east coast. Refurbished in 2005 on land owned by the State Enterprise Ministry, it is the second Bali golf course to close in four years. The stunning 18-hole Nirwana course has fallen into disrepair since billionaire Hary Tanoesoedibyo unsuccessfully tried to convert it into a six-star resort using the Donald Trump brand name. The new Bali International Hospital is scheduled to open in 2023 in what Widodo has described as a special economic zone, providing a convenient alternative for an estimated 600,000 Indonesians who now seek treatment abroad. Well aware of the shortcomings exposed during the pandemic, the president says the government will also intensify its efforts to attract investment in pharmaceutical plants to make drugs more readily available at a cheaper cost to its 270 million-strong population. State Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir, a key member of Widodo’s cabinet, says Indonesia hopes to reduce pharmaceutical raw material imports from 95% to 75% over the next four years, initially using locally-grown herbs and petrochemical derivatives.
    India’s pharmaceutical industry, by comparison, supplies 50% of the global demand for vaccines, 40% of the generic demand for the US and 25% of all medicines for the United Kingdom. The worldwide market was valued at about $1.1 trillion last year. The government has provided few details on the cost of the Bali venture, but the involvement of the Mayo Clinic has already stirred controversy because foreign doctors will likely become an integral part of the medical staff. When he first announced plans for the hospital last year, Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan said Widodo had already approved a special visa for “first-class doctors who can practice and transfer technology.” The Indonesian Doctors’ Association strongly opposes opening up the local medical profession to foreign practitioners, but it may relent if the government confines any relaxation of the rule to oncologists and other specialists.
    The designation of a special economic zone may also mean that the Lippo Group’s Siloam chain and other privately-owned hospitals will be excluded from bringing in foreign doctors – apart from those now hired for purely administrative duties. The new facility will have 300 wards and space for 30 intensive care beds, in addition to a nursing school and also an academic research center to fill a requirement for more specialized care. A Mayo Clinic spokesperson has clarified that the organization will not be investing in the hospital, only in advising on its development, planning and design and also in honing administrative efficiencies and effectiveness when it begins operations.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#indonesie#bali#tourismemedical#pandemie#frontiere#circulation#care#accessante#systemesante

  • Omicron knocking on China’s ’zero Covid’ door - Asia Times
    https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/omicron-knocking-on-chinas-zero-covid-door

    Omicron knocking on China’s ‘zero Covid’ door
    HONG KONG – A trickle of Omicron cases is penetrating Hong Kong’s “zero Covid” defenses, worrying residents of a next viral wave and imperiling highly anticipated plans to reopen the border with the mainland later this month. As of Saturday, the city had identified 14 cases of the highly contagious variant.At the same time, China reported 125 new Covid-19 cases for Friday, of which 89 were local, according to the National Health Commission. Reports noted that marked the biggest daily tally for local infections since November 30 when the country had 91 domestic cases. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the cases recorded on Friday, if any, were Omicron. The outbreak forced more than a dozen factories in China’s eastern manufacturing hub of Zhejiang province to close, according to reports.
    The cracks in China’s “zero Covid” come as the new highly contagious variant first discovered in South Africa surges in the West, with particularly rapid upticks in cases seen in the United Kingdom and the United States. New York state broke a record in new daily cases on Friday with 21,027 new infections reported.Australia’s populous New South Wales state reported a record 2,482 Covid-19 cases on Saturday, a day after easing international arrival rules for vaccinated travelers, indicating Omicron is likely taking hold Down Under. Hong Kong threatens to be an Omicron gateway into mainland China if the border is reopened. He was exempted from a 21-day quarantine after arriving in the city due to the nature of his job. During a three-day enhanced medical surveillance period, he stayed at home at Cheung Hing Building, 44-48 Pitt Street, Yau Ma Tei. But on Wednesday, he went to a mobile testing station in his neighborhood for a Covid-19 test and some places to buy food.When he arrived at the testing station, he developed symptoms on the same day with a cycle threshold (ct) value of about 25 to 29 and was immediately sent to quarantine. The pilot, who had been inoculated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on March 22 and April 15 in Hong Kong, carried the N501Y mutant strain but was negative for the L452R and E484K strains.As the Department of Health suspected that the man could be carrying the Omicron strain, it issued a mandatory Covid-test order to six places, including a Wellcome supermarket at 40 Waterloo Road, a Starbucks coffee shop at 56 Dundas Street, a city superstore at the Gateway Arcade of Harbor City, a Circle K store at 50-52 Pitt Street, a Mannings shop at 494-496 Nathan Road and another Wellcome supermarket at 1 Kwong Wa Street. Prior to this, a mandatory test order has been issued to people who live in the Cheung Hing Building where the infected pilot resides. As of Friday, none of the 160 people in the building has tested positive. Cathay Pacific said the operating aircraft that the pilot flew had been sent for deep cleaning. It said all of its operating flight crew was fully vaccinated.On Friday, two more Omicron cases were identified among cargo crew members of the same flight, which arrived in Hong Kong from Kenya, India and Uganda via the United Arab Emirates on flight ACP502. on Wednesday.The duo included a 41-year-old and a 27-year-old man who had received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, respectively, in Kenya. Earlier this week, the Hong Kong government declared that travelers returning from the United States and United Kingdom would have to spend a week of quarantine in spartan isolation camps and then serve another 14 days in a hotel room they pay for themselves.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#chine#hongkong#sante#zerocovid#omicron#frontiere#circulation#quarantaine#isolement#grandebretagne#kenya#inde#ouganda#emiratsrabesunis

  • HK-China border reopening hangs on Omicron’s spread - Asia Times
    https://asiatimes.com/2021/12/hk-china-border-reopening-hangs-on-omicrons-spread

    HK-China border reopening hangs on Omicron’s spread
    Analysts predict HK retail prices and rents will surge when borders are opened but Omicron fears are casting doubts on the plan
    by Jeff Pao December 6, 2021
    HONG KONG – Quarantine-free travel between Hong Kong and Macau and mainland China is expected to be implemented around Christmas, an opening that promises to boost Hong Kong’s retail and property sectors and revive cross-border business.On Friday, the Hong Kong government will allow people to download a health code that is compatible with those of Macau and the mainland so they can cross the border with a full location record.It is still discussing with the Guangdong provincial government about a “circuit breaker,” hoping that quarantine-free travel will be suspended only if two clusters of local infections are reported.
    Last month, health officials and experts expected the so-called border reopening would start in early December. However, Beijing changed its mind as it did not want to cause any disruption to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections on December 19 and activities related to the 22nd anniversary of the Macau Special Administrative Region on December 20.
    Property experts said if quarantine-free travel is not affected by the emergence of the Omicron strain of Covid-19, then prices and rents of Hong Kong’s retail shops could rebound in the short-term by as much as 30% and 60%.Manufacturers have said they would expand their retail businesses after the Hong Kong-mainland border was fully reopened, hopefully after the Chinese New Year in February.Since virus outbreaks in Wuhan were made public in late January 2020, people traveling across the border of Hong Kong and the mainland have been required to follow strict quarantine measures.People must be isolated for 14 days when they enter the mainland, although Hong Kong residents and mainlanders can enter Hong Kong from the mainland without quarantine via the Return2HK and Come2HK schemes. Last week, the Hong Kong government put four South African countries and 12 other countries on its high-risk list due to the growing number of Omicron cases around the world.On December 1, it announced that a 38-year-old man who arrived in Hong Kong from Qatar on November 24 was stuck in the restricted transit area at Hong Kong International Airport for four days due to a visa-related issue and tested positive with Omicron in a pre-departure test on November 28.
    David Hui, a professor of respiratory medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a government advisor on the pandemic, said on Sunday the border reopening schedule would not be affected by the four imported Omicron cases reported in Hong Kong.Hui said as it took four months to fully reopen the Macau-mainland border, Hong Kong should only expect a full border-reopening after February.
    The South China Morning Post reported on November 18 that a trial scheme for people to travel from Hong Kong to the mainland without quarantine would be launched in the first week of December.However, Beijing later decided to postpone the launch to late December to avoid causing any virus outbreaks that would disrupt the LegCo elections on December 19, HK01.com reported on December 3, citing officials familiar with the situation.A small-scale border-reopening scheme with a daily quota of 1,000 people would kick off before Christmas, Hong Kong media reported on Monday. The quota would then increase to 5,000 by next February.
    Although the Guangdong government has said it would prefer to suspend the scheme whenever a local case is identified, the Hong Kong government suggested that the scheme be suspended only if two clusters of patients were identified.Last Friday, the Hong Kong government said the “Hong Kong Health Code” system would be open for registration from 9am on December 10. It said people could register an account and familiarize themselves with its functions earlier, with a view to facilitating a smoother operation when quarantine-free travel with the mainland and Macau officially resumes.
    Applicants for the health code are required to register personal information such as name, identity document number and date of issue, contact telephone number and residential address and upload Hong Kong residential address proof. The information would be shared with the mainland only if the code’s user tested positive, said the government.

    #Covid-19#migrant#migration#hongkong#chine#macau#afriquedusud#frontiere#circulation#omicron#codesante#cluster#quota