103-year-old Iranian woman ‘makes full recovery’ from coronavirus after being in hospital for a week
- The unnamed 103-year-old had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan
- The hospital said she was discharged yesterday ‘after making a full recovery’
- Iran has been one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 with almost 1,000 deaths
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
A 103-year-old woman in Iran has recovered after being infected with the new coronavirus, state media reported, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the disease.
The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for about a week, IRNA news agency said.
But she was ‘discharged after making a complete recovery’, Semnan University of Medical Sciences head Navid Danayi was quoted as saying by IRNA late Tuesday.
Ashopkeeper waits for customers as a woman wearing a face mask walks past Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, Tehran yesterday. The unnamed 103-year-old woman (not pictured) was ‘discharged after making a complete recovery’, according to Iranian state media
A health worker measures the body temperature of a passenger as a precaution against the coronavirus (COVID-19), in Qom, Iran yesterday, after the death toll in Iran from the novel coronavirus outbreak rose to 988
President Hassan Rouhani is pictured at a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran today. The 103-year-old woman was the second elderly patient to survive the novel coronavirus in the country
The woman was the second elderly patient in Iran to have survived the disease.
The other was a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of Iran, the news agency said.
After being sick for three days, he recovered on Monday despite having pre-existing medical conditions including high blood pressure and asthma, it added.
The report did not say how the pair were treated.
Since Iran announced its first deaths on February 19, the novel coronavirus has spread to all of the country’s 31 provinces and killed nearly 1,000 people.
People carry coffins of the victims of coronavirus at Beheshte Masoumeh Cemetery in Qom, Iran yesterday. The death toll in Iran from the novel coronavirus outbreak rose to 988 yesterday, local media reported
The elderly are the most vulnerable to the disease, which first emerged in China late last year.
The World Health Organization this month estimated the novel coronavirus kills 3.4 per cent of all those infected.
But for people aged over 80 the fatality rate was 21.9 per cent, according to a report the WHO carried out with the Chinese authorities.