JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/ANN): The Health Ministry has played down the news that a Chinese tourist who traveLled from Wuhan to Bali last month tested positive for the novel coronavirus a few days after he left the resort island.
The Health Ministry’s disease control and environmental health directorate general secretary, Achmad Yurianto, said on Thursday (Feb 13) that the patient could have been infected in Shanghai after he returned from Bali and reiterated that Bali had yet to detect any positive coronavirus cases. Therefore, Bali’s condition was “insufficient to infect people”.
Authorities in Huianan city in Anhui province, China, reported via Weibo on Feb 5 that the travel history of a Chinese national identified as Jin who had tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The patient flew to Denpasar, Bali, on Jan 22 on a Lion Air flight from Wuhan (JT2618) and left on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Denpasar to Shanghai (GA858) on Jan 28. Chinese authorities advised passengers who had been on either flight to quarantine themselves and check for fever.
The Indonesian Health Ministry, however, did not have any plans to advise the passengers similarly.
"If we find this Jin, we will speak up. There’s no way we will tell people, ‘Hey, you are under observation because you might get infected by someone that I suspect [of being infected by the virus].’ It’s just a suspicion, and people would get panicked.
One thing is for sure: on Jan 22 all (Lion Air) passengers were examined and received a health alert card (upon entering Indonesia), ” Achmad said in a press briefing.
Achmad said his office had sent queries to both Lion Air and Garuda Indonesia and had found two passengers with the surname Jin, one an adult and the other a minor. Both flew on Lion Air JT2618 on Jan 22 and Garuda Indonesia GA858 on Jan 28.
“Our suspicion falls on two passengers on those flights: the young Jin and the older Jin. However, their seats are far apart so they’re probably not family, ” he said.
The health ministry official went on to say that it was possible that Jin, who reportedly tested positive on Feb 5, was not infected in Indonesia. Achmad said that the average incubation period of the novel coronavirus was 10 days and, therefore, by his own calculations, Jin should have been infected by the coronavirus on Jan 27 or 28.
“Assuming that he was in Indonesia on Jan 27, that was a time when we did not have any positive cases of the novel coronavirus. We tested specimens from two Indonesian citizens and 12 foreigners, and all of them tested negative, ” Achmad said.
As the ministry had not recorded any significant increase in influenza-like illnesses during that period, Achmad said he believed that “Bali’s condition at that time was insufficient for him to be infected by the novel coronavirus.”
“We also know that he got on a taxi or other public transportation upon returning to Shanghai on Jan. 28. He might have been infected there.”
Achmad said the ministry would try to confirm Jin’s identity with relevant authorities, including the Huainan CDC, through the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing and the Immigration Office. Once the ministry obtained Jin’s full identity, officials would determine which hotels he stayed at in Bali, Achmad said.
“This is not simply about this specific Jin but about how we prepare for strong protection and detection. He is in his country now. We wish him a speedy recovery. Our focus is on Bali right now, ” he said.
On Thursday, The Jakarta Post obtained new information from the Huainan city government website about a coronavirus patient in Huainan identified as Jin with a matching travel history – from Huainan to Wuhan on Jan 22 – and a matching infection chronology to the Jin referenced in the Weibo announcement.
According to information posted the Huainan Municipal People's Government Health Committee website on Feb 5, a male, 35-year-old patient named Jin was confirmed to have Covid-19, the illness resulting from the novel coronavirus, on Feb 4. He lived in an apartment in Tianjia'an district and was admitted to an isolation room in a city hospital on Jan 30. - The Jakarta Post/Asia New Network
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