A 101-year-old Italian man has survived Covid-19 after he tested positive to the virus last week. Photo / AP
An Italian man aged 101 has become the oldest person to recover from Covid-19, after he was released from hospital this week.
An Italian government official has said there is "hope for the future" after a 101-year-old man recovered from Covid-19.
The man, only known as "Mr P", was admitted to a hospital in Rimini, in a city north east of Italy last week after he tested positive for the virus.
But on Thursday he was released, according to Gloria Lisi, the deputy mayor of Rimini, Italy.
Lisi said the recovery of the man is "truly extraordinary" and provided "hope for the future", CNN reported.
"Mr made it. The family brought him home yesterday evening," the publication reported Lisi saying.
"To teach us that even at 101 years the future is not written."
Mr. P was born during the Spanish flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed between 30 million and 50 million people worldwide, according to CNN.
Since Thursday, the city of Rimini documented 1,189 new cases of Covid-19 and the country as a whole has a reported 919 new deaths from the virus – the highest number of fatalities confirmed by any country in the space of 24 hours since the outbreak began.
The country's Covid-19 death toll now stands at 9,134.
The previous largest daily toll was on March 21, when 793 people died.
Meanwhile, the number of people infected on Friday rose to 86,498, making Italy the second country after the United States to overtake China in terms of cases.
It comes as more than 550,000 cases of Covid-19 have now been confirmed across the world, with 176 countries affected. More than 25000 people have died.
AUSTRALIA
Meanwhile, in Australia, a 91-year-old woman has lost her life to the virus, taking the national death toll to 14.
The woman was a resident at Dorothy Henderson Lodge, an aged-care facility located at Macquarie Park, northwest of Sydney, where a number of residents and employees have contracted the virus.
It comes as 3503 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed across Australia, with 1617 in New South Wales, 685 in Victoria, 555 in Queensland, 257 in South Australia, 255 in Western Australia, 62 in the ACT, 58 in Tasmania and 14 in the Northern Territory.
Fourteen people have died, including eight in New South Wales, three in Victoria, two in Western Australia and one in Queensland.
According to the World Health Organisation around one out of every six people who gets Covid-19 becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.
Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, are more likely to develop serious illness, it states on its site.
The most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough.
Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhoea, WHO explains, adding these symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually.
"Some people become infected but don't develop any symptoms and don't feel unwell. Most people (about 80 per cent) recover from the disease without needing special treatment," WHO states.
While there have been cases of documented coronavirus among people of all ages — many who are young and otherwise healthy — older people are at a higher risk of serious complications related to the virus.
"We need to work together to protect older people from the virus," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently told reporters. "They are valued and valuable members of our families and communities, but they're at higher risk of the more serious complications of Covid-19."
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
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