By Lucy Caulkett-
A French nun, who turns 117 tomorrow, is the oldest person in Europe to survive coronavirus.
Sister Andre, whose birth name is Lucile Randon, tested positive for the virus on January 16 but did not show any symptoms.
Sister Andre, who was born on February 11, 1904, is the world’s second-oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group’s (GRG) World Supercentenarian Rankings List.
The oldest person is Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who turned 118 on January 2.Sister Andre and Branya’s have both lived through and survived three pandemics, including the 1918-19 flu pandemic and the 1957-58 flu pandemic.
In May last year, a 113-year-old woman in Spain’s northeastern province of Girona recovered after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Anna Del Priore, 107-year-old New Jersey resident, also recovered from COVID-19 last August.
“I wasn’t scared because I wasn’t scared to die … I’m happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else – join my big brother and my grandfather and my grandmother,” Sister Andre told France’s BFM television.
David Tavella, spokesman for the Sainte Catherine Laboure retirement home, said she was doing well.
After isolating from other residents in her retirement home in the south of France, she has now made a full recovery.
‘She has been very lucky,’ David Tavella, spokesman for the Sainte Catherine Labouré retirement home, said of the nun, who is blind and uses a wheelchair. ‘We consider her to be cured. She is very calm and she is looking forward to celebrating her 117th birthday.’
‘She didn’t ask me about her health, but about her habits. For example, she wanted to know if meal or bedtime schedules would change,’ he told Var Matin, a local newspaper. ‘She showed no fear of the disease. On the other hand, she was very concerned about the other residents,’ he added.
Aside from being Europe’s oldest person, Sister Andre is also the second-oldest living person in the world, according to data from the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).
‘No, I wasn’t scared, because I wasn’t scared to die. I’m happy to be with you, but I would wish to be somewhere else – to join my big brother, and my grandfather and my grandmother,’ she said.
The world’s oldest person is Japan’s Kane Tanaka, who turned 118 on January 2. The 20 oldest people in the world on GRG’s list are all women.
In May 2020, it was announced that a 113-year-old woman – believed to be the oldest in Spain – recovered after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Maria Branya, from Girona, contracted the virus in March, shortly after the country went into lockdown.
Like Sister Andre, Branya suffered very mild symptoms and made a recovery while in isolation.
‘Now that she is well, she is wonderful, she wants to speak, to explain, to make her reflections, it is her again,’ her daughter wrote in a tweet.