Hawaiian officials are on high alert after a recent vacationer tested positive for the coronavirus after returning to Japan, reports said.
The man, who is in his 60s, spent 11 days in The Aloha State, along with his wife, before returning to Japan on Feb. 7, according to The Honolulu Star Advertiser.
He was taken via ambulance to a hospital in Japan on Thursday; the positive test results were delivered Friday, the report said.
Hawaii currently has no known coronavirus cases, and officials there are now scrambling to locate people that came into contact with the man during his time in Honolulu and Maui.
“We do believe this is a serious concern,” Gov. David Ige said at a Friday press conference.
But “that this scenario is exactly what we’ve been preparing for and are prepared to respond,” Ige said.
The man began showing symptoms of illness on Feb. 3 — the couple’s second week of vacation — while staying at a time-share on the island of Oahu.
Since returning to Japan, the man was hospitalized two prior times for fever and pneumonia but was only admitted on his third trip to the hospital, according to The New York Times.
Hawaii Department of Health’s state epidemiologist, Dr. Sarah Park, said the man likely contracted the coronavirus before or en route to Hawaii.
Coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, has infected over 66,000 people across the globe and killed over 1,500 people — almost entirely in China.