Coronavirus: 113-year-old Spanish woman becomes the oldest to beat COVID-19

Maria Branyas in her rest home in Spain.
Maria Branyas in her rest home in Spain. Photo credit: Twitter/ Atenció gent gran

A 113-year-old woman has become the oldest reported person to have survived coronavirus.

Maria Branyas was born in San Francisco in 1907 and during World War One she moved to the Catalan province with her Spanish father, according to local newspaper La Vanguardia.

She has since lived through both world wars, the flu pandemic and the Spanish Civil war.

In early April 2020, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 as the number of new cases rose in Europe.

After weeks in isolation at the Santa Maria del Tura rest home where she has lived for two decades, she has recovered.

"She survived the disease and is doing fine," a spokeswoman for the rest home told AFP.

"She feels good now, she took a test last week and the result was negative."

One of Branyas' three children, Rosa Moret said she displayed almost no symptoms for COVID-19 and called her a strong, positive person, the New York Post reported.

"Now that she is well, she is wonderful, she wants to speak, to explain, to make her reflections, it is her again," Moret tweeted.

She also shared a message on Twitter from Branyas.

"Thank you very much for your congratulations and encouragement, and although I would have preferred not to have to live this unfortunate situation of nonsense in the treatment of the elderly in the country, I thank you.

"And a lot of strength to all the grandmothers and grandparents who are still struggling."

She wrote her secret to living through the virus was "good health" and an "active immune system".

Moret says Branyas is looking forward to finishing her isolation and seeing her large family again. She had three children with husband Joan Moret and now has 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren, the New York Post reported.

According to the Gerontology Research Group, a global group of researchers in various fields which tracks and documents people over 110, Branyas is the oldest person living in Catalonia.

She is now the oldest person to have survived coronavirus after Holland's 107-year-old Cornelia Ras.