101-year-old Italian leaves hospital after beating coronavirus, local official says

He was born in the middle of a global pandemic and survived many other health crises and international conflicts, including World War II.

But this 101-year-old Italian tough nut is not done beating the odds.

The man, who’s been identified only as “Mr. P.,” was released from a hospital Thursday and returned home after recovering from coronavirus, a local official said in a message that encouraged Italians to have hope despite the onslaught of infections and deaths hitting the country.

“A hope for the future of all of us is in the body of a person over 100 years old, as the sad stories of these weeks mechanically tell us every day how the virus is raging, especially on the elderly," Gloria Lisi, the deputy mayor of the coastal city of Rimini, wrote in Italian.

Mr. P. was born in the midst of the 1918 flu pandemic, the most severe health crisis in recent history. U.S. health authorities estimate that about 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population at the time, became infected. At least 50 million people worldwide died from the virus, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“He saw everything. War, hunger, pain, progress, crisis and resurrection,” Lisi said.

The centennial was hospitalized last week shortly after testing positive for COVID-19, joining more than 80,000 Italians who have faced the same diagnosis since the virus began spreading in the country last month.

Italy also has the largest number of coronavirus deaths — about 8,200, according to Johns Hopkins University’s latest figures. China, where the virus was first identified three months ago, has reported about 3,200 deaths.

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