104-year-old Oregon man who survived Spanish Flu, World War II recovers from coronavirus/////

A 104-year-old man from the US state of Oregon who is said to have lived through the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression and World War II has recovered from COVID-19, possibly becoming the oldest person to recover from the disease.

William “Bill” Lapschies contracted the coronavirus at the Edward C Allworth Veterans’ Home in Oregon and started showing symptoms on March 5, according to toa CBS report. He had been isolated in his room and is considered recovered from COVID-19, the report said.

As he recovered in time for his birthday, his family had a social-distancing party outside the veterans’ home on April 1.

His daughter Carolee Brown said that Lapschies’ 101st birthday was celebrated with a party of over 200 people. The party, however, much smaller this year.

“But we’re so thrilled he’s recovered from this and we just had to do something for him,” she told CBS affiliate KOIN.

Earlier, Brown said, the doctors had told the family that he might not make it as he was “very, very sick.”

William’s son-in-law, Jim Brown noted that he lived through the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, and a couple of major recessions.

When asked by a reported how he felt, Lapschies, wearing a cap with ‘WWII VETERAN’ engraved on it, said, “It feels pretty good. I made it.”

Lapschies was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during World War II, his family said.

The United States has become the epicentre of the novel coronavirus with 277,953 positive cases, most for any country. Over 7,000 people have died of the disease in the US, after Italy’s death toll of 14,681 and Spain’s 11,198.

In the worst 24-hour death toll for any country since the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the United States recorded nearly 1,500 deaths from COVID-19 between Thursday and Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

The US recorded 1,480 deaths between 8:30 pm (0030 GMT) Thursday and the same time Friday, AFP reported.

The global coronavirus death toll reached 59,131 with close 1,100,000 cases worldwide.

*story by DNA India