A Toyko resident in his 60s has been infected with Covid-19 shortly after returning home from Indonesia.

Japanese man tested positive after visiting Indonesia

The man developed onset symptoms on Feb. 12 and visited a healthcare institution.

However, he returned home on the same day as he was not diagnosed with pneumonia.

On Feb. 15, he travelled to Indonesia for a vacation with his family, although it was not specified which part of Indonesia they travelled to.

After having severe difficulty breathing, the man was hospitalised on Feb. 19 upon his return to Japan, and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19.

Indonesia receives no details about Japanese man

As of Monday (Feb. 24), Indonesian authorities have yet to receive any additional information about the confirmed patient, according to The Jakarta Post.

Spokesperson for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry, Teuku Faizasyah, said that the Japanese authorities have not had any official communication with Indonesia regarding the man.

This is despite Indonesia putting in effort on their part to gather the necessary details.

Directorate General secretary of Indonesia's Health Ministry's Disease Control and Environmental Health, Achmad Yurianto, said that contact has been made with the Indonesian Embassy in Tokyo about the man.

However, his identity is still unverified.

Achmad said via The Jakarta Post: “We don’t know his name or which part of Indonesia (he visited). So what can we investigate?"

Indonesian authorities urged to take action

The Japanese man's case has sparked concerns about Indonesia's ability to detect Covid-19 cases.

As of Feb. 24, 2020, Indonesia is still one of the few Southeast Asian countries that have yet to announced any confirmed cases of Covid-19.

This is despite it having a population of 264 million people, and over two million tourists from China in 2018.

Bayu Krisnamurthi, the man who headed Indonesia's National Committee for Avian Flu Control and Pandemic Preparedness between 2006 and 2010, warned that the Japanese man could have already transmitted Covid-19 to others in Indonesia through cough droplets or sneezes.

If this was the case, Bayu urged Indonesian health authorities to clarify the facts and update the public daily so that they can get accurate and useful information.

He said that Indonesian citizens should also be persuaded to take preventive measures, such as washing their hands and wearing masks when sick.

Bayu added that the Indonesian authorities should already know the proper procedures when dealing with an epidemic.

This is because the country has had prior experiences with other virus outbreaks, such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Indonesia has put in place all necessary measures

On the other hand, director of Jakarta's Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Amin Soebandrio, argued that if the Japanese man had shown no symptoms while in Indonesia, there was no way anyone could detect him.

The man would have been undetected despite already carrying the virus during the 14-day incubation period.

Amin also said that this would be the same outcome if the man had visited any other country, not just in Indonesia.

He explained that the Indonesian government had followed the proper procedures according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), such as requiring health cards and placing people with recent travel history to China in quarantine.

He added, according to The Jakarta Post: “So the problem is not in our ability to detect (Covid-19) or not, because we have put all the measures in place."

Top photo via Getty Images.