Spain: 113-year-old woman beats coronavirus

The 113-year-old Maria Branyas made an “amazing” recovery since being infected with the coronavirus in March, her daughter Rosa told reporters. Maria was “in shape, wanting to talk” after being “very bored” during weeks of isolation in her nursing home, according to Rosa.

In a video shown by Spanish TV3, Branyas herself described the staff as “very kind, very attentive” and said she was lucky to enjoy good health.

Read more: Socially distanced clowning around in coronavirus pandemic

Separately, a spokeswoman for the residence told the AFP news agency that Maria was “doing fine.”

“She feels good now, she took a test last week and the result was negative,” the spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Centenarians shrugging off the pandemic

Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907 to Spanish parents, and moved to Spain with her family at the age of eight, surviving both the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 and the Spanish Civil War. She has three children, eleven grandchildren (one of whom is now 60 years old) and 13 great-grandchildren.

The elderly are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. The pandemic has claimed “several” lives in Branyas’ nursing home in the eastern city of Olot, according to the spokeswoman for the residence.

At least two other centenarian women — one aged 101 and another aged 107 — are known to have recovered from the coronavirus in Spain.

Read more: Germany’s oldest man dies aged 114

In the UK, 106-year-old Connie Titchen was released from a hospital last month after beating the infection.

Branyas is believed to be the oldest living person in Spain. At 113, she is nearly four years younger than the world’s oldest woman, Japanese Kane Tanaka.

dj/rc (AFP, EFE)

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