Health officials of Indonesia's holiday island Bali says they will investigate and verify the information that a Chinese tourist who traveled from Wuhan in Hubei province to Bali last month tested positive for the new coronavirus on February 5 after arriving in Huainan city in Anhui province.
The Jakarta Post reports that the Bali Health Agency's Ketut Suarjaya, said the agency is trying to figure out the travel history and the activities of the patient, identified only as Jin.
"We have to check on the dates when he was in Bali. The incubation period of the coronavirus is 14 days. We don't know yet where exactly he was infected. We don't know yet whether he was infected with the coronavirus before he went to Bali. There is a possibility that he got the virus when he returned to China," Suarjaya said.
"If we look at his [flight history], he departed from Wuhan on January 22, and returned back to his country on January 28, I think he did not become infected in Bali. If so, he must have shown some symptoms when he was in Bali," he added.
Suarjaya said there was a small possibility that the man was infected before he went to Bali.
"However, we will recheck again the facts. We will follow up the information. We will trace all places he visited. […] And of course, we will raise our alertness," he said.
Authorities in Anhui province, China, reported that the Chinese national who visited Bali late last month had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The administration announced via Weibo on February 6 that the Huainan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on February 5 that Jin flew on Lion Air flight JT2618 from Wuhan – the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak – to Bali on January 22. The patient stayed on the island for about a week before flying on Garuda Indonesia flight GA858 from Bali to Shanghai on January 28.
The patient was found to have been infected with the disease by Huainan CDC according to the Weibo post.
“For passengers on the aforementioned flights, please enact preventative measures immediately,” wrote the Anhui administration on its Weibo account, which is a local version of Twitter.
"Please don't go out for a while and if you get a fever, go to the nearest hospital," the statement said. "Please use masks when you travel to the medical center and don't use public transportation," it went on.
