UPDATE March 4: Bali authorities have traced the people who were in contact with the New Zealand woman and they are currently being monitored. Read on here.
New Zealand today confirmed its first case of COVID-19, said to be a female citizen in her 60s who recently traveled from Iran to Auckland via Bali.
According to New Zealand’s Ministry of Health, the woman arrived on Wednesday on Emirates flight EK450, which originated from Tehran.
Work has begun to trace the patient’s other close contacts including those on the flight which originated in Tehran via Bali. The person arrived in Auckland on 26 Feb and traveled home in a private car. Their family became concerned about their condition and called Healthline.
— Ministry of Health – Manatū Hauora (@minhealthnz) February 28, 2020
A playback of EK450 flight via FlightRadar24 on Feb. 26 showed that the plane arrived in Denpasar from Dubai at 3:20pm and then departed to Auckland at 5:26pm that same day.
“The person is in a condition that is improving,” New Zealand’s Minister David Clark said during a press conference earlier today, as seen via a live stream.
Clark explained that the woman was brought to the hospital not long after her arrival by family members after “concerns” over her condition.
He also added that the first two tests, taken from a throat sample, came back negative. However, because symptoms of a lung infection were present, the woman underwent a third test, which came back positive for COVID-19.
At the time of publication, Indonesian officials have yet to respond to this latest development.
Indonesia, for its part, has confirmed zero cases of COVID-19 so far. At this rate, concerns over Indonesia’s ability to detect the coronavirus are increasing, seeing as how a number of foreign nationals who recently traveled to Bali have tested positive for the disease upon returning to their respective home countries, though it has yet to be determined if they contracted the virus while in the archipelagic nation.
