107-year-old Dutch woman becomes world's oldest person to recover from Coronavirus

COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus has proved to be particularly fatal for the elderly and those with underlying health issues

Cornelia Ras, the 107-year-old Dutch woman has become the world's oldest person to recover from novel coronavirus. The centenarian fell ill on March 17, a day after her 107th birthday and recovered from the disease on Monday.

Cornelia Ras fell ill on March 17 after attending a church service with other members of her nursing home. She along with 40 other service members tested positive, after the trip on Goeree-Overflakkee, an island in the southwest of the country, on the other hand, 12 among them have died, Daily Mail reported.

107-year-old Dutch woman recovers from coronavirus

Cornelia Ras
107-year old Cornelia Ras Twitter/Adriano Del Monte

The doctors told Ras that she had beaten the coronavirus on Monday, April 6. "We did not expect her to survive this," her niece Maaike de Groot said. "She takes no medicines, still walks well and gets down on her knees every night to thank the Lord. From the looks of it, she will be able to continue to do so," she added. As on Friday, April 10, Netherlands has reported 21,762 COVID-19 cases, 2,396 of whom have died, according to Worldmeter's tally.

Who was the oldest person before Cornelia Ras to beat novel coronavirus?

Bill Lapschies
104-year old Bill Lapschies Twitter/Iman of Peace

Before Cornelia Ras, the 104-year old American, Bill Lapschies, who survived the Spanish Flu and World War II, recovered from coronavirus. Born in 1916, Lapschies fell ill on March 5 and was put in isolation at the Edward C Allworth Veterans' Home in Lebanon, Oregon, where he lives.

Before him, 103-year-old Zhang Guangfen, a Chinese woman from Wuhan, beat the novel coronavirus after being treated for six days. An unnamed 103-year-old Iranian woman, from the central city of Semnan, too recovered from the deadly contagion. The 102-year-old Italica Grondona, recovered after being treated for 20 days at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, Italy.

COVID-19 is believed to be particularly lethal for the elderly and those with underlying health issues. But examples of the centenarians recovering from the deadly disease serves as a ray of hope in such bleak times. The disease has infected 1,604,718 people from around the world and killed 95,735.

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