A 19-year-old university student from Sifnana village in Indonesia's Tanimbar Islands was suspected to have Covid-19.

Was a suspected case after returning from Malaysia

On Feb. 7, the student had returned home from Malaysia, which has a total of 22 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Upon his arrival in Indonesia's Maluku province, he had apparently shown symptoms of the virus.

He was subsequently quarantined and treated as a suspected case at the Magretty Saumlaki public hospital in the Tanimbar Islands on Feb. 12.

Test results came back negative

On Feb. 18, Tanimbar Islands Health Agency announced that the student has tested negative for Covid-19, according to The Jakarta Post.

Head of the health agency, Edwin Tomasoa, explained that tests on the student's sputum samples (a mixture of saliva and mucus) were sent to the Health Ministry’s laboratory in Jakarta.

The test results, which came back earlier than expected, showed that the student was not infected with Covid-19.

Edwin added that he had initially expected the test to take five days.

He said via Jakarta Post:

“We received information from Jakarta that the result is negative. We have yet to receive the written results, but we received the information directly from the lab.”

The student is now in a healthy condition and is no longer having difficulty breathing.

He also has no fever or back pain like he did while hospitalised.

Tanimbar Islands is home to around 110,000 people and consists of around 65 islands.

It is also known for having a lack of health facilities.

Between Jan. 25 and the first week of February this year, 10 villagers have died from diarrhoea in the area.

Indonesia still has zero cases

As of Feb. 19, 2020, Indonesia is still one of the few Southeast Asian countries that has 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.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s representative to Indonesia, Navaratnasamy Paranietharan, had previously expressed concern that there are no confirmed cases in the country.

However, he added that Indonesia's lab testing kits are working well and are in accordance with WHO's standards.

Top image by Sonny Tumbelaka via Getty Images.