TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Bali provincial government claimed that it uses a traditional liquor, known as arak Bali, in the treatment of COVID-19 asymptomatic cases. The therapeutic use of alcohol is claimed to be highly effective and has been applied in a number of quarantine sites managed by the local administrations.

“People who have just tested positive undergo this treatment for two days, and on the third day, they are tested negative and are recovered,” said Governor Wayan Koster in his official residence of Jayashaba, Denpasar, Wednesday, July 22.

According to Wayan, usada, or traditional Balinese medicinal plants by using distilled liquor had been thoroughly tested on hundreds of people. The medicine was the extraction of lime and eucalyptus oil.

“It turns out that the recovery number increases significantly among those people in quarantine,” Koster said, claiming that he was the initiator and had assigned researchers to make the cure. Laboratory tests, he added, had been conducted.

“The initial sample is 19, with 15 of them cured. The sample was then increased to 40, 100, and 200. Nearly 80 percent of them have been recovered by this treatment,” the Bali Governor remarked.

The therapeutic use of liquor, he underlined, was not in the form of drinks but inhaled medication using a nebulizer. “I also inhale it before sleeping,” said the former member of the House of Representatives (DPR).

“This product will be patented soon. If it is proven and legalized with a patent, it will be a new industry based on local wisdom,” Koster said.

Based on data from the provincial COVID-19 mitigation task force to date, the cumulative number of positive cases in Bali hit 2,934 people, and 74.23 percent or 2,178 patients have been declared recovered.

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ANTARA