113-year-old woman who had Spanish flu believed to be oldest person to survive COVID-19

The oldest person to have survived after becoming infected with the novel coronavirus may be 113-year-old Maria Branyas.

 According to Newsweek, Branyas had Spanish flu as a child, having lived through that epidemic, and survived after contracting the novel coronavirus.

Born in San Francisco in 1907, Branyas is the mother of three children and now has eleven grandchildren, according to a translation of an article from the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. 

According to the article translation, her family had last visited her in person on March 4 with all following communication having taken place by phone, and the family is looking forward to being able to visit her again.

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There are more than 229,000 individuals who have been confirmed to have COVID-19 in Spain and more than 27,000 have died, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center as of May 14.

While anyone can contract the novel coronavirus, older individuals are at a higher risk of developing serious health conditions resulting in death.

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