Jakarta: Medical experts have raised concerns about Indonesia's ability to detect novel coronavirus, potentially leaving a number of undiagnosed cases on Australia's doorstep.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal that Indonesian medical laboratories lack the testing kits needed to rapidly detect the Wuhan coronavirus, according to one of the country's leading molecular biologists, and the virus may already be present in the country despite government claims of no infections.

The specific reagents — chemicals used in testing kits to help analyse and identify the Wuhan or novel coronavirus — are not yet available in the country. These required reagents are only due to arrive in Indonesia in the next few days.

In the interim, the country's labs have only been able to detect the presence of the coronavirus family in a potentially infected person. This family of viruses also includes the common cold, and the MERS and now-extinct SARS viruses. The country is yet to positively confirm a single case of the novel coronavirus.