101-year-old Italian man, born amid Spanish flu pandemic, survives coronavirus illness, official says

Ryan W. Miller | USA TODAY

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A 101-year-old Italian man has reportedly survived his battle with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus spreading around the globe.

An official from the city of Rimini on the northeast coast of Italy says the man, identified publicly as only Mr. P., was released from the hospital earlier this week.

"He made it. Mr. P. made it," said Gloria Lisi, vice mayor of Rimini, according to ANSA, the Italian news agency.

"Even at 101 years, the future is not written," she added, per CNN.

Italy, particularly the northern part of the country, has faced a severe public health crisis amid the COVID-19 outbreak as hospitals have been pushed to their limits with the mass influx of patients sickened by the highly contagious virus.

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The entire country was ordered to stay locked down to fight the spread of the coronavirus, and as of Friday, more than 80,000 people are known to have tested positive, leading to more than 8,200 deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

Per ANSA, Lisi said that the 101-year-old was admitted to a hospital in Rimini last week after testing positive for the virus.

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She also noted the man, born in 1919, entered the world during another pandemic: The Spanish flu, an H1N1 virus that spread from 1918 to 1919 and killed at least an estimated 50 million people worldwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"He saw everything, Mr. P. War, hunger, pain, progress, crisis and resurrections," Lisi said.

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