A 113-year-old woman living in Spain is believed to be the world’s oldest reported person to survive COVID-19.
Maria Branyas—who is also allegedly Spain’s oldest living person—recovered from the virus after testing positive in April, the New York Post reports. While she was essentially asymptomatic, she still quarantined herself at her nursing home in Olot, Spain, where only one employee wearing protective gear was allowed to enter her room to check on her. Branyas later tested negative. She was also recuperating from a urine infection at the same time.
“Now she is fine, she is willing to talk, to explain, to think, she is herself again,” Branyas’ daughter Rosa Moret wrote on the Twitter she created for Maria. She noted that her mother is healthy, besides experiencing some small pains.
Branyas’ nursing home has been hit hard by coronavirus: last month, 17 people died from the disease at the facility in one day.
Maria was born in San Francisco on March 4, 1907, moving to Spain in 1915 with her family during World War I. Her father died from tuberculosis during the boat trip, and his body was thrown into the ocean.
She married in 1931 and eventually had three children, 11 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. During her time, she also lived through the Spanish flu pandemic from 1918-19 and Spain’s 1936-39 civil war. She’s lived in her nursing home for 20 years.
Maria Branyas is also the oldest living person in Catalonia, Spain. A number of other patients over 100 have survived COVID-19, including a 101-year-old woman in New York and a 107-year-old woman in Washington, D.C. who’s still an active artist.
