Ministry Of Health Ensures No COVID-19 In Bali

Teleconference conducted by the Ministry of Health when discussing the spread of COVID-19 in Bali (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) provided an explanation regarding the news on social media that said there were Chinese citizens infected with the Wuhan corona virus or COVID-19 who entered the Bali region on January 22.

This news circulated after information from the official account of the Anhui Provincial Government, China on the Weibo page, that Jin - whose last name is not yet known - reportedly visited Bali at the end of January.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Achmad Yurianto confirmed that a Chinese citizen on behalf of Jin entered Indonesia via Bali. Jin is known to have boarded the Lion Air plane on January 22 and returned to China using a Garuda Indonesia plane on the Bali-Shanghai route on January 28.

"We have followed up first by confirming with the airline (Lion Air). Apparently, from the airline mentioned earlier, we did get a passenger on behalf of Jin who carried out the flight, there were only two people. One child, one adult," Yuri said at the time. teleconference at the Ministry of Health's Office, Jalan Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, Thursday, February 13.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Achmad Yurianto during a teleconference (Wardhany Tsa Tsia / VOI)

Confirmation has also been made for the Garuda Indonesia airline. As a result, on January 28 with the Bali-Shanghai route, the Ministry of Health found six people named Jin.

However, Yuri didn't know who the Jin was. This is because until now the full names of Chinese citizens who are suspected of having been exposed to the virus have not yet been identified, which has caused hundreds of deaths.

However, Yuri ensured that Bali was in a safe condition and that there was no transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Because, after receiving this news, the Ministry of Health immediately took action by checking the specimens of people suspected of having been exposed to the virus.

The result, from 14 specimens from 12 Indonesians and two foreigners, all were negative or none were exposed to the virus.

"Not only that, in that period we looked at the sentinel influenza data, apparently there was no fluctuation, we completed the heavy pneumonia survey there was no change," he explained, adding that based on these results there was no spread of COVID-19 in Bali.

Even though he said there was no spread of the COVID-19 virus in Bali, the Ministry of Health would not stop to carry out searches.

According to Yuri, the Ministry of Health will carry out tracing with the assistance of immigration authorities. The goal is that all the places visited by the Chinese citizens can be known with certainty.

"We also try to ask after the identity of Jin is found, who is complete, we will look at the hotel. Which hotel did Jin enter earlier. This is what we dig, hopefully we can get it," he said.

"But for us, we are not talking about this genie but how do we carry out detailed detection, careful protection in Bali because he was already there, which in Bali we must monitor properly. Do not let it become a new confusing epicenter," concluded. Yuri.