Medical workers have warned that the Indonesian holiday island of Bali is severely underprepared to deal with the deadly coronavirus, threatening its 4m inhabitants and a tourist industry worth billions of dollars each year.
Interviews with staff at the three Bali hospitals earmarked to treat victims of a virus that has infected more than 80,000 people around the world point to a lack of equipment, staff and infrastructure required to deal with an outbreak.
“I’m not convinced,” Ni Ketut Pande Sri Widnyani, senior doctor at Sanjiwani Gianyar hospital, one of the facilities, said of Bali’s ability to handle such a crisis. “Right now we’re not up to the required standard,” she said of the hospital. “There’s a lack of facilities and I pray we won’t be infected.”