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Indonesia retraces steps of infected tourist diagnosed in China

This article is more than 12 months old

JAKARTA: Indonesia is retracing the movements of a Chinese tourist diagnosed with the coronavirus after he returned home from Bali, a Health Ministry official said yesterday.

The world's fourth most populous country, with more than 260 million people, is a popular destination for Chinese visitors but has so far not recorded any cases.

Indonesia's Health Ministry official Anung Sugihantono, said authorities were checking hotels and other destinations where the tourist might have gone, but nobody in Bali had yet been found with symptoms of the coronavirus.

Another official Achmad Yurianto said the tourist was probably infected on public transport in China upon return.

In a statement on microblogging website Weibo, official media in China's Anhui province said the tourist, identified only as Jin, travelled from Wuhan city - where the epidemic originated - to Bali on Jan 22 and returned to China on Jan 28.

Bali is Indonesia's main tourism gateway and has already seen 20,000 cancellations, according to Indonesia's hotels and restaurants association.

FLIGHT

The Anhui media said the tourist took a Lion Air flight from Wuhan and returned via a Garuda Indonesia flight to Shanghai.

Lion Air spokesman Danang Mandala Prihantoro said in a statement the airline had concluded that passengers and crew on board the plane taken by the tourist were free of the virus.

Garuda Indonesia spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said in a statement the carrier had grounded and disinfected its plane.

Indonesia has barred visitors who have been in China and halted flights. - REUTERS

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