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A Japanese man has tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after returning from an Indonesia trip.

He is the second patient to have tested positive for Covid-19 following a trip to Indonesia, according to The Jakarta Post.

Came down with cold-like symptoms prior to Indonesia trip

Reporting off of Japanese public broadcaster NHK, The Jakarta Post wrote that the Tokyo metropolitan government announced on Saturday, Feb. 22 that a Toyko resident had been infected by Covid-19.

The man, who is in his 60s and works at a senior care facility, reportedly developed "cold-like symptoms" and visited a healthcare institution on Feb. 12. This was before this trip to Indonesia.

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

The next day, Feb. 13, he returned to work at the senior home, and he proceeded to spend Feb. 14 at home.

On Feb. 15, he reportedly travelled to Indonesia for a vacation with his family.

NHK did not specify where in Indonesia the man and his family travelled to.

The Jakarta Post reported that the man was hospitalised on Feb. 19 upon his return to Japan due to severe difficulty breathing.

He is said to be in "serious condition".

Chinese tourist also tested positive after visit to Indonesia

According to The Jakarta Post on Feb. 12, authorities in China's Anhui province had reported that a Chinese national who visited Bali in late-January had tested positive for Covid-19 upon his return to China.

The Huainan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reportedly stated on Feb. 5 that a passenger, identified only as Jin, had flown from Wuhan to Bali on Jan. 22.

He stayed in Bali for almost one week, before flying from Bali to Shanghai on Jan. 28.

He was then found to be infected with Covid-19 on Feb. 5 by Huainan CDC, reported The Jakarta Post.

The Jakarta Post also reported on Feb. 14 that Indonesia's health ministry had "played down" the news about Jin.

The disease control and environmental health directorate general secretary of the health ministry, Achmad Yurianto, said on Thursday, Feb. 13 that Jin may have been infected in Shanghai after he returned from Bali:

"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."

He also reiterated that Bali had yet to detect any positive coronavirus cases, and that "Bali’s condition at that time was insufficient for him to be infected by the novel coronavirus."

Indonesia still at zero confirmed cases

Indonesia has no confirmed cases of Covid-19 within its country to date.

The only confirmed case thus far of an Indonesian with Covid-19 is of a 44-year-old woman working as the domestic helper in Singapore.

She was found to be infected with Covid-10 on Feb. 4, and was one of five people discharged on Feb. 18.

All three members of the family she worked for — a 28-year-old woman, a 45-year-old Singaporean man, and a six-month-old baby — also tested positive for the virus, were hospitalised, and have since been discharged.

Indonesia's lack of confirmed Covid-19 cases has led to speculations on undetected cases.

A study conducted by five researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and published on Feb. 11 suggested that Indonesia and Cambodia could potentially have undetected cases.

The researchers suggested that “outbreak surveillance and control capacity should be rapidly strengthened… to ensure cases are detected if occurring and avoid emergence of self-sustained transmission.”

On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Indonesian health minister Terawan Agus Putranto called the report “insulting”, reported The Jakarta Post.

He told reporters that “they can be baffled but it’s a fact” that there are no cases.

Putrano stated that the country has proper testing equipment, and that they are “being vigilant at the highest level”.

The Indonesian government has said that none of the dozens of cases it has tested have been positive, reported The Jakarta Post.

“We’re not hiding anything”, stated Putrano.

Top image by John Applese on Unsplash.