Health workers wearing protective gear take part in an exercise in handling a suspected patient at Sanglah hopital in Denpasar, Indonesia’s resort island of Bali (Picture: AFP)

A 53-year-old British woman has died in Bali after contracting coronavirus.

She is the eighth British person to die from coronavirus, and the death is the first linked to Covid-19 in Indonesia. An Indonesian government spokesman said she was already ‘critically ill’ before being diagnosed with coronavirus.

The authorities say she arrived in Bali on February 29 and developed a fever a few days later, before attending a private hospital on the island. It is believed she contracted the virus outside of Bali.

She was transferred to Sanglah Hospital – the largest hospital on the island – on March 9, where she passed away in the early hours of Wednesday morning.


Medical staff attend a suspected coronavirus patient at Suradadi Hospital on the Indonesian island of Java (Picture: Reuters)

Health workers wearing protective gear during an exercise in handling a suspected patient (Picture: AFP)

Head of Bali’s coronavirus taskforce, Dewa Made Indra, said the woman had underlying health conditions, including diabetes, hypertension and lung disease, Australia’s 7News reports.



Mr Indra said all the people the woman may have had contact with have since been traced.

He said: ‘I can inform that we have traced all people that have had contact with her. There are a total of 21 people who have had contact since she arrived in Bali.

‘To those who had contact with her, we have told them to do self-quarantine to prevent this disease from spreading.

Health officers wait for passengers at the International Airport in Kuta, Bali, before checking their temperature (Picture: NurPhoto/PA)

A health officer checks the body temperature of a child at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali (Picture: Johanes Christo Provider: NurPhoto/PA)

‘Those who are working, should take leave, stay at home, use masks. We have conducted medical checks, taken swabs and sent the sample to the laboratory.’

A man who was quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan was the first Briton to have died from coronavirus.

Since then six people have died in British hospitals after contracting coronavirus, while 382 people have tested positive for the virus, as of 9am yesterday.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.