Corona Fighter: Maria Branyas, survival of spanish flu, world war I and now beats Covid_19 at the age of 113
SPAIN: The oldest person believed to be living in Spain, a 113 year old woman, Maria Branyas has survived against the deadly Coronavirus at a retirement home where several other residents died from the disease.
Maria Branyas tested positive for COVID-19 in April at the Santa Maria del Tura care home in the eastern city of Olot, where she has lived for the past 20 years. She fought the respiratory illness off in isolation in her room and was reported to have been cured on Tuesday.
A spokesperson of the care home said,”She survived the disease and is doing fine. She feels good now, she took a test last week and the result was negative.” However, she also added that Branyas had displayed only mild symptoms.
According to a television report which broadcasted about the centenarian, Branyas was isolated in her room for weeks, with only a single employee in protective gear to take care of her. On being asked the secret of her long life by an employee she simply replies that she has been lucky to enjoy “good health”.
In the video she is seen praising the staff & showing gratitude as she calls them “very kind, very attentive”.
According to the official figures, Spain has been one of the worst affected countries in the pandemic, with nearly 27,000 fatalities due to the virus. The care home has also recorded “several” deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The elderly citizens are more vulnerable to the disease due to less immunity owing to age. Many countries in Europe have reported a huge number of coronavirus deaths among seniors living in retirement homes.
At such a time, the recovery of Branyas even at such an age is quite a magic.
A daughter of Branyas, Rosa Moret told that her mother was “in shape, wanting to talk, to explain, to reflect, she has become herself again”.
Spanish media has published several articles about Branyas, who is considered to be the oldest person in the country.
She was born on March 4, 1907 in San Francisco where her father, who was from northern Spain, worked as a journalist. The family later moved to Spain on a boat during World War I and also lived through the Spanish flu pandemic that swept the world in 1918-19 as well as Spain’s 1936-39 civil war.