Hospital director Supriyanto said that tests on samples of the patient’s mucus at the Health Ministry laboratory in Jakarta found her to be free of the coronavirus.
52-year-old woman from Kediri, East Java, who had been under observation at the isolation ward of Iskak Public Hospital in Tulungagung for showing symptoms consistent with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has tested negative for the virus.
Hospital director Supriyanto said that tests on samples of the patient’s mucus at the Health Ministry laboratory in Jakarta found her to be free of the coronavirus.
"We have received the results of the laboratory tests, which show that she is COVID-19 negative,” he told reporters at the hospital on Monday.
Supriyanto said that the patient, Yatim Muhaimi, was in good condition and was ready to go home after receiving medical care in an isolation ward for 14 days.
He said the hospital had treated her as a suspected COVID-19 case because she exhibited flu-like symptoms including a high fever, coughing and a sore throat after returning from South Korea, a country that has 30 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Yatim had traveled to South Korea early last month to visit her newborn grandchild and returned to Kediri on Feb. 6. She was treated for broncopneumonia at a hospital in Kediri but was later transferred to Iskak Hospital, which was designated by the government to handle patients exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus infection in the western part of East Java.
Yatim expressed her gratitude for being allowed to leave the hospital.
She said that she had been aware of being treated as a suspected coronavirus patient but had always been confident of testing negative.
"I was very sure I wasn’t infected,” she said. “I was sure that it was only the flu and gastritis.”
Indonesia has no confirmed COVID-19 cases to date.
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