Jakarta. A male patient in Central Java who died recently for allegedly having coronavirus was confirmed of having H1N1 virus or Swine flu, doctors said on Thursday.

Doctors from Kariadi Hospital in the provincial capital of Semarang, where the patient had been treated, determined Swine flu as the cause of the death after results from laboratory tests were delivered.

"We receive the laboratory results last night. He tested positive of having the type A Influenza or H1N1. The 37-year-old patient previously tested negative for Covid-19, but the [saliva] sample showed H1N1 virus," dr. Fathur Nurcholis told a press conference at the hospital in Semarang.

Fathur, who oversaw the patient at the hospital, said the virus attacked the patient’s lungs, causing acute bronchopneumonia.  

He said the patient, whose identity was not disclosed, had a recent history of a  visit to Spain, the first European country to be hit by Swine flu during the 2009-2010 outbreak.

The hospital’s medical director Agoes Oerip Poerwoko said the patient returned to Indonesia from Madrid on Feb. 12 after a transit in Dubai. He was admitted to another hospital on Feb. 17 before being transferred to Kariadi Hospital two days later. The patient was placed under quarantine for alleged coronavirus infection but he died on Sunday.

“He suffered from bronchopneumonia that severely damaged his lungs,” Agoes said.

As lab results had not come out on the day of his death, hospital officials treated his remains as a coronavirus victim which requires strict burial procedures, including wrapping the body with plastic bag before he was put in the coffin, he said.

Such a measure was taken to prevent transmissions to other people according to the government procedures, he added.