bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Associated Press

To recover from the coronavirus, as she did, Ada Zanusso recommends courage and faith, the same qualities that have served her well in her nearly 104 years.
Italy, along with neighbouring France, has Europe’s largest population of what has been dubbed the “super old” – people who are at least 100. As the nation with the world’s highest number of Covid-19 deaths, Italy is looking to its super-old survivors for inspiration.
“I’m well, I’m well,” Zanusso said Tuesday during a video call with Associated Press from the Maria Grazia Residence for the elderly in Lessona, a town in the northern region of Piedmont. “I watch TV, read the newspapers.”
Zanusso wore a protective mask, as did her family doctor of 35 years beside her, Carla Furno Marchese, who also donned eyewear and a gown that covered her head.
Asked about her illness, Zanusso is modest: “I had some fever.”
Her doctor said Zanusso was in bed for a week.

“We hydrated her because she wasn’t eating, and then we thought she wasn’t going to make it because she was always drowsy and not reacting,” Furno Marchese said.
“One day she opened her eyes again and resumed doing what she used to before,” Furno Marchese said. The doctor recalled when Zanusso was able to sit up, then managed to get out of bed.
What helped her get through the illness? “Courage and strength, faith,” Zanusso said. It worked for her, so she advises others who fall ill to also “give yourself courage, have faith.”
Lawyer Andrea Napoli is 33, fit and healthy, but still ended up in intensive care
Covid-19 can cause mild or moderate symptoms, and most of those who are infected recover. But the elderly and those with existing health problems can be at high risk for more serious illness.
The virus has killed nearly 18,000 people in Italy and over 88,000 worldwide. The World Health Organisation says 95 per cent of those who have died in Europe were over 60 years old.
Under Italy’s five-week-long lockdown, which is aimed at containing the spread of infections that have overwhelmed hospitals, visitors aren’t allowed at homes for the elderly.
Her doctor asked Zanusso what she would like to do when “they open the doors”.
“I’d like to take a lovely walk,” she replied. And your three great-grandchildren? “Watch them play together.”


Deaths, hospitalisations and new infections are levelling off in Italy, and Premier Giuseppe Conte is expected to announce in the coming days how long the lockdown will remain in place, with expectations that some restrictions could be eased.
For now, Zanusso is isolated from other residents as she awaits a follow-up swab test to confirm she is negative for the virus.
She grew up in Treviso, in the northeastern Veneto region, where she worked for many years in the textile industry. Zanusso, who turns 104 on August 16, had four children – three of whom are living – and has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Many New York coronavirus patients are young, surprising doctors
“She’s old, but healthy, with no chronic illness,’’ her doctor said.
This week, Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera devoted an entire page to the stories of super-old survivors, called “healing at 100 years old”. The inspirational portraits are a counterpoint to news of large numbers of deaths among elderly people living in Italian nursing homes and other assisted-living facilities.


Of the victims, most elderly weren’t tested for Covid-19 if they died in nursing homes, so the numbers don’t figure into Italy’s overall coronavirus death toll, which is the highest in the world.
Medical staff “went through a very hard time,’’ said Furno Marchese, the doctor. “It was a great emergency with so many residents ill, so to see a positive outcome was very rewarding, not only for me, but for all the people who worked hard here non-stop.”
In the Residenza Maria Grazia nursing home, 21 other residents succumbed to Covid-19, La Repubblica reported.
“Someone up there forgot about me,” the paper quoted Zanusso as saying.
Outside the non-profit, 61-bed Maria Grazia Residence, the Italian flag flies at half-staff in tribute to those who died of the virus.
Additional reporting by DPA


Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotels sees ‘bleisure’ boom after pandemic curbs, CEO says

US could require US$15,000 bonds for some tourist, business visas

China’s Shenzhen, Guangzhou airports hit record highs, surpass pre-Covid passenger levels

Landmark US Chinatown survived Covid, anti-Asian violence – but tariffs pose new threat

Coronavirus pandemic

At 103, great-grandmother Ada Zanusso defied odds to beat coronavirus

Ada Zanusso poses with a nurse after recovering from Covid-19. Photo: AP

In this photo taken on April 6, 2020, 103-year-old Ada Zanussi, eats her meal at the nursing home "Maria Grazia" in Lessona, northern Italy, after recovering from Covid-19 infection. To recover from coronavirus infection, as she did, Zanusso recommends courage and faith, the same qualities that have served her well in her nearly 104 years on Earth. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (Residenza Maria Grazia Lessona via AP Photo)

Coronavirus: lawyer Andrea Napoli is 33, fit and healthy, but still ended up in intensive care after falling ill

Andrea Napoli, 33, takes a selfie in a hotel being used for patients recovering from coronavirus, in Rome. Photo: AP

Many New York coronavirus patients are young, surprising doctors

A medical worker at a Covid-19 testing tent in New York on Saturday. Photo: AP

The first patient arrives at a newly constructed field hospital in the East Meadow of Central Park during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Jefferson Siegel

A medical worker wearing a single protective glove and a face mask walks past a line of workers and visitors waiting to be tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the main entrance to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Monday, March 23, 2020, in New York.  (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

News

World

Europe


Ada Zanusso fell ill in a nursing home where 21 other residents succumbed to Covid-19
What helped her get through the illness? ‘Courage and strength, faith’



A great-grandmother in northern Italy has successfully beaten off the Covid-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus.


Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Italy

Disease

At 103, great-grandmother Ada Zanusso defied odds to beat coronavirus

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Ada Zanusso fell ill in a nursing home where 21 other residents succumbed to Covid-19 What helped her get through the illness? ‘Courage and strength, faith’

Ada Zanusso fell ill in a nursing home where 21 other residents succumbed to Covid-19

What helped her get through the illness? ‘Courage and strength, faith’