It sounds like some sort of bad joke.

As Australia and other countries were evacuating their residents from the epicentre of the coronavirus — to avoid the risk of infection — China was offering hundreds of its own citizens a free flight from Bali back to the city of Wuhan.

On Thursday, the Chinese consul-general in Denpasar was trying to organise a Boeing 777 to fly to Denpasar to evacuate about 250 Chinese tourists stranded in Bali since Indonesia cancelled flights to and from China indefinitely.

Those returning home would be flown to Wuhan.

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It's estimated up to 5,000 Chinese citizens were holidaying in Bali when the flight ban took effect on Wednesday.

Around 200 of those are from Wuhan, in Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Bali airport authorities were on Friday still dealing with security and flight approvals needed for the plane to land, but there was no word on when that would be.

The operation includes plans to allocate a special runway at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport so other travellers would not be exposed to any health risk.

Neither the crew nor anyone else on board the China Eastern Airways plane would be allowed to disembark, and the plane would be sprayed with disinfectant after landing.

Not surprisingly though, many Chinese aren't in a rush to return home.

Bali's provincial Government has revealed at least 22 Chinese citizens have applied for extensions to stay in Bali longer than their 30-day visas allow.

They've cited fears of contracting the coronavirus if they're forced to return.

Indonesia and Bali are among the top 11 destinations that receive airline travellers from Wuhan. ( Detik: Antara/Fikri Yusuf )

Indonesia has offered to extend the visas of many Chinese for up to a month, allowing them to stay while the coronavirus epidemic continues to disrupt flights between the two countries.

The Government's tourism office has sought to reassure all foreign visitors that Bali remains safe, despite the number of Chinese tourists who arrived on the island during the coronavirus emergency.

Chinese make up the second biggest group of tourists in Bali, after Australia, with 1.17 million Chinese visiting the resort island in 2019.

Of the 73,073 Chinese tourists who arrived in Bali since January 13, only 18 were deemed to be worthy of further observation.

"After an intensive observation and laboratory test, all of them are proven to be negative, meaning no one of them is suspected of [having] coronavirus," the tourism office said on Thursday.

Indonesia is yet to confirm a single case of coronavirus in the country. Health authorities in Jakarta said they were confident the virus had not found its way in.

"We are still convinced that there isn't anyone infected with novel coronavirus in Indonesia," said Anung Sugihantono, the director-general of Indonesia's disease control and environmental health.

"There are questions about this, but the [US Centre for Disease Control], the [World Health Organisation], they confirmed this as well."

Study suggests coronavirus spreading undetected in Indonesia

Officers checking body temperatures at the arrival terminal of Denpasar airport. ( Antara: Fikri Yusuf )

But a new scientific study suggests coronavirus is probably already spreading undetected across the Indonesian archipelago, including Bali.

"Indonesia has reported zero cases, and you would expect to have seen several already," said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-author of a new study.

The research published on Wednesday uses air travel estimates between Wuhan and other destinations to identify locations that potentially have "under detected internationally imported cases" of the virus.



Based on these travel estimates, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia should all have more confirmed cases of coronavirus.

"Many of the imported cases have been linked to a recent travel history from Wuhan, suggesting that air travel volume may play an important role for the risk of cases being exported outside of China," the study said.

A separate study lists Indonesia and Bali among the top 11 destinations that receive airline travellers from Wuhan or 17 other "high-risk" cities in China, again suggesting that Indonesia should have several confirmed cases of the virus already.

Singapore, which has more than 30 confirmed cases, is ranked eighth. Australia, with its 15 cases, is ranked 10th.

Economy predicted to lose billions

Fifty people have been tested for the virus in Indonesia's 18 provinces, including in Bali. ( ABC Rural: Sarina Locke )

The Indonesian Government is facing increasing questions about why it has not discovered a single case of coronavirus in a country with almost 270 million people and strong links to China, with a sizeable Chinese-Indonesian population.

Indonesia's Health Ministry said it has done everything necessary to screen for the virus and contain any outbreak of the disease.

Fifty people have been tested for the virus in 18 provinces, including in Bali, but 49 proved negative. Only one is still being monitored.

Health authorities said Indonesia has received about 1,000 of the chemical reagents needed to test for the disease, with results usually available within a couple of days.

Airport authorities are still using thermal sensors to check whether incoming passengers are unwell. About 100 hospitals have been designated to isolate coronavirus patients if necessary.

Indonesia has barred entry to all visitors who have been in China in the past 14 days and cancelled all flights between the two countries, as well as suspended food and beverage imports from China.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 40 seconds 40 s Indonesians evacuated from Wuhan last weekend are now in quarantine.

More than 240 Indonesians evacuated from Wuhan last weekend are now in quarantine on the remote Natuna Islands, north of Java.

Indonesia predicts a $6 billion loss to the economy if coronavirus continues to disrupt travel from China.

Bali has already seen 10,000 cancellations since January. The Government said with average tourist expenditure around $2,000 each, the loss of so many tourists could cost the tourism industry for months to come.

Indonesia has encouraged airlines to offer discount fares to Bali, to attract more visitors from outside China.