A 50-year-old male patient suspected of coronavirus infection died at 4am today in Dr. Hafiz Hospital in Cianjur, West Java. Identified by his initial D, he was reportedly an employee at a state-owned enterprise (BUMN) from Bekasi, who had been hospitalized for three days prior to his death.
D reportedly visited Malaysia from Feb. 14 to 17 and returned to Indonesia in good health. However, he came down with fever and was coughing a couple of days later and was then treated at a hospital in Bekasi. He was visiting his family in Cianjur prior to his hospitalization.
The Health Ministry’s Secretary of the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P), Achmad Yurianto, said D tested negative for COVID-19.
“The [patient] from Cianjur, based on our monitoring were included in the list of 155 patients who tested negative [for coronavirus]. So he did not die because of COVID-19,” Yurianto said today in Jakarta, as quoted by Liputan 6.
Yurianto said he did not know the cause of the patient’s death, but said the ministry is going to launch an investigation with Dr. Hafiz Hospital.
This patient in Cianjur is the third patient suspected to have been infected with COVID-19 who have died in Indonesia, after similar cases were reported in Batam and Semarang. Previously, officials also said that the patients tested negative for the novel coronavirus.
After weeks of claiming it was free of infections and shielded by prayer, Indonesia finally announced its first coronavirus cases yesterday amid growing reports elsewhere involving patients who recently visited the archipelago. Several new cases reported in Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore in the last few days have involved patients who recently traveled to Indonesia.
The first people to be diagnosed with COVID-19 in Indonesia — a 64-year-old woman and her 31-year-old daughter — are making inroads towards recovery, officials say, as they enter the third day of medical quarantine.
They are currently being treated at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in Sunter, North Jakarta, where they had been transferred to since they were suspected of the novel coronavirus infection on Mar. 1.
“Thank God, the two coronavirus patients are getting better. They no longer have fever, only minor coughs. They don’t have difficulty breathing, and they’re eating fine,” Sulianti Saroso Director Mohammad Syahril said today, as quoted by Kompas.
Mohammad explained that the patients are set to undergo further COVID-19 testing in the coming days. Should they test negative, they will have to undergo several more screening processes before they could be cleared for discharge.
