An Italian man who survived the Spanish flu has not recovered fully from the COVID-19 pandemic.
By World Israel News Staff
A 101-year-old man in Rimini, Italy, is one of the oldest people to have survived the coronavirus – a remarkable feat, considering that the disease is believed to be most deadly for those over 60.
Dubbed “Mr. P” by Italian media, he was released from a hospital in northern Italy last Thursday, after a weeklong stay, Forbes reports. He made a full recovery.
According to Italy’s National Institute of Health, Forbes notes, nearly 86% of deaths in the country were patients older than 70 years old.
Rimini Deputy Mayor Gloria Lisi told local media that the virus was the second pandemic Mr. P. had survived, according to Forbes. He was born in 1919, during the Spanish flu, which was estimated to have infected 500 million people, about a third of the world’s population; 50 million people died.
“Mr. P made it. The family brought him home yesterday evening,” Lisi said in a television interview. “[It teaches] us that even at 101 years, the future is not written.
“Every day we see the sad stories from these weeks that mechanically tell about a virus that rages and is especially aggressive on the elderly. But he survived. Mr. P. survived,” Lisi said.
“Everyone saw hope for the future of all of us in the recovery of a person more than 100 years old,” Lisi said, as quoted by the Jewish Journal., which refers to Mr. P as a Holocaust survivor as well, although the outlet gave no further information on his ethnic or religious background or his whereabouts during the Second World War.
Mr. P is not the oldest COVID-19 survivor. Forbes reports that a 103-year-old woman in Wuhan, China – from where the virus apparently originates – and a 97-year-old woman in South Korea have also recovered.