104-Year-Old Grandmother Becomes World’s Oldest to Survive Coronavirus

A 104-year-old Italian grandmother has become the world’s oldest survivor of the Chinese coronavirus, and the Spanish flu 100 years ago.

The Science Times reported that Ada Zanusso, a mother of four and grandmother, caught the coronavirus in a nursing home in Biella, in northern Italy, on March 17. She developed a fever and then had trouble breathing before she received an official diagnosis.

“I suspected it was coronavirus because of the number of cases at the care home. They have sadly had a few fatalities there,” her son, Giampiero, told the Sun.

The 104-year-old’s recovery from the coronavirus was praised by her doctors as a “sign of good hope” among all the tragic deaths from this pandemic.

Ada had also personally witnessed the Spanish flu, which had killed 50 million people around the world. Although there was no consensus as to where the virus originated, experts agreed that a third of the population (500 million people) had been infected.

Ada is not the only centenarian to survive the coronavirus. A U.S. World War II veteran recovered from the coronavirus in time to celebrate his 104th birthday.

Others close in age have also recovered from the coronavirus, including a 95-year-old Oregon veteran and a 90-year-old from Washington state who credited God and potato soup for helping her recover from the virus.