AMSTERDAM/ROME: A 107-year-old Dutch woman has recovered from the coronavirus, probably becoming the oldest survivor of the pandemic in the world, and a two-month-old baby who was believed to have been Italy’s youngest Covid-19 patient has been released from hospital after overcoming the disease, media reports said on Thursday.

Cornelia Ras fell ill on March 17, the day after her 107th birthday, Dutch newspaper AD reported, after attending a church service with other residents of her nursing home on Goeree-Overflakkee, an island in the southwest of the country.

She and 40 others at the service were subsequently diagnosed as carrying the virus. Twelve of that group have since died, but Ras was told by her doctors on Monday that she had beaten the infection.

“We did not expect her to survive this”, her niece Maaike de Groot told the newspaper.

“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.” Prior to Ras, the oldest widely documented coronavirus survivor was Bill Lapschies, a 104-year-old American.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020