A 101-year-old man who was born during the Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions has reportedly recovered from coronavirus. The ma...
A 101-year-old man who was born during the Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions has reportedly recovered from coronavirus.
The man, from Rimini in north-east Italy, was born in 1919 as the world was grappling with the pandemic which killed 50million people.
And he has now been released from hospital after becoming one of the oldest people in the world to recover from coronavirus, according to reports.
A 101-year-old man who was born during the Spanish flu pandemic which killed millions has reportedly recovered from coronavirus. Pictured: Members of the Red Cross hold stretchers in St Louis, Missouri, during the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918
Gloria Lisi, the deputy mayor of Rimini, said the man, who she identified only as Mr P, was released from hospital earlier this week and returned to his family.
His recovery comes despite the virus being particularly dangerous for the elderly and those with health problems.
According to Italy's National Institute of Health, nearly 86 per cent of deaths among those with coronavirus occurred in patients older than 70.
Italy has been particularly badly affected by the virus. The country has had more than 86,000 cases - second only to the US - and 9,134 people have died.
The man, from Rimini (pictured) in north-east Italy, was born in 1919 as the world was grappling with the pandemic which killed 50million people
Ms Lisi said Mr P was taken to hospital last week and then tested positive for COVID-19.
According to the ANSA news agency, she said: 'He made it. Mr. P. made it.'
She added that Mr P has seen 'everything' in his life, including 'war, hunger, pain, progress, crisis and resurrections.'
Spanish flu attacked more than one third of the world's population and within three months had killed three times as many as those who died in the First World War.
While most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.
The oldest person to recover from coronavirus is 103-year-old Zhang Guangfen, a woman living in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started.
The news of Mr P's recovery comes after the death toll from coronavirus in Italy surged by 919 on Friday to the current official figure of 9,134.
Prior to Friday's figure, the largest daily toll was registered on March 21, when 793 people died.
The man (not pictured) has now been released from hospital after becoming one of the oldest people in the world to recover from coronavirus, according to reports. Pictured: An elderly man wears a face mask while walking in downtown Padua, northern Italy, on Saturday
The 919 people who died on Friday compares with 712 deaths on Thursday, 683 on Wednesday, 743 on Tuesday and 602 on Monday.
There have now been more cases in Italy's than in China.
The United States already surpassed China's tally of cases on Thursday.
The news of Mr P's recovery comes after the death toll from coronavirus in Italy surged by 919 on Friday to the current official figure of 9,134
In Italy, of those originally infected nationwide, 10,950 had fully recovered on Friday, compared to 10,361 the day before. There were 3,732 people in intensive care against a previous 3,612.
The hardest-hit northern region of Lombardy reported a steep rise in fatalities compared with the day before and remains in a critical situation, with a total of 5,402 deaths and 37,298 cases.
That compared with 4,861 deaths and 34,889 cases reported up to Thursday.
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