101-year-old Italian man survives coronavirus

LONDON: A 101-year-old patient of COVID-19 was released from the hospital in Rimini, Italy after a miraculous recovery, The News reported on Saturday.

Termed “Mr P” in the Italian media to protect his identity, the patient had been tested positive for the deadly virus but did not continue to show any symptoms and had been tested negative before being released from the hospital.

This recovery has come as a ray of hope for the elderly across the world since it proved that the virus could be fought against regardless of the age of the victim.

Previously, 103-year-old Zhang Guangfen, a woman living in Wuhan, China, where the virus is believed to have originated had also recovered in a week after being admitted to the hospital. Similarly, a 97-year-old female patient in South Korea had also made a full recovery after contracting the deadly coronavirus. Mr P’s recovery came as a shock in Italy where the fatality rate for people over 70 stands at 86 percent. The country has seen a massive spread of the viral outbreak with daily fatalities reached 919 on 27 March. This is the second pandemic Mr P has survived. He was born in 1919, in the middle of the Spanish flu which is estimated to have infected 500 million people, which impacted a third of the world at that time. Rimini’s deputy mayor Gloria Lisi said, "Mr P made it. The family brought him home yesterday evening. It teaches us that even at 101 years, the future is not written. His "truly extraordinary" recovery gave hope for the future.”