#15,004
Although fewer than half the world's countries have reported a positive COVID-19 case, by now it is likely that few are nations are truly free of the disease, they just aren't looking hard enough to find it.
Three weeks ago, Harvard professor Marc Lipsitch et al. in a paper called - Using predicted imports of 2019-nCoV cases to determine locations that may not be identifying all imported cases - identified locations - including Indonesia - which may potentially have undetected internationally imported cases.Indonesia's Health officials made strong objections to the paper's conclusions, and as recently as last Thursday defended their screening methods, and called their lack of cases a `blessing from the Almighty'.
Overnight, the inevitable occurred, and Indonesia reported their 1st two locally acquired cases.The victims are reportedly a 64-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter who had contact with a female Japanese visitor, who then tested positive after returning home to Malaysia. Contact tracing is now underway.
This report from Reuters:
Indonesia confirms first cases of coronavirus, link to Japanese visitor
