Grandmother, 95, becomes the oldest person in Italy to recover from coronavirus

A 95-year-old grandmother who was diagnosed with the coronavirus this month has become the oldest patient in the Italian province of Modena to recover from the illness.

Alma Clara Corsini, from Fanano, was rushed to a hospital in the city's northern province of Pavullo on March 5 after showing signs of the virus- which has now claimed the lives of 5,476 in the nation.

However medical staff have now confirmed the pensioner's body has shown a 'great reaction' and made a full recovery.

Ms Corsini told Italian newspaper Gazzetta Di Modena: 'Yes, yes, I'm fine. They were good people who looked after me well, and now they'll send me home in a little while. '

The 95-year-old has since been been discharged and has returned home.

Specialists at the hospital added that the grandmother was able to recover without 'antiviral therapy'- medications which are administered to a patient to help them fight a viral infection.

According to the Italian paper, Ms Corsini became the 'pride of the staff' during her stay at the hospital which has been trying to cope with the the rising number of cases of COVID-19 in the country.

The latest recovery comes after doctors announced a 79-year-old Italian man, from Liguria, with the virus had recovered with the help of the experimental the Ebola drug remdesiver after 12 days in hospital.

The drug has also shown signs of success in a woman from the U.S. who was diagnosed with the illness on February 26 and 14 Americans who tested positive for COVID-19 after travelling on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Today it was confirmed the army would be deployed to impose a lockdown in Italy’s worst hit region of Lombardy after its coronavirus death toll surpassed 3,450 in the last 24 hours.

Ministers in Rome were forced to stop person-to-person contact and place all 60million citizens into lockdown as the pandemic continued to spread with force across the country.

Italy, which recorded its first coronavirus death in February, now has more fatalities than China with 5,476, as well as having 59,138 infections with 7,024 recoveries.

The third worst hit country is Spain with 1,720 fatalities and 28,572 cases, Iran with 1,685 fatalities and 21,638 cases, followed by France with 674 deaths and 16,018 cases, and the United States with 390 deaths and 31,057 cases.

On Sunday, Italy banned travel within the country in yet another attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

A month after the first death from the highly infectious virus was registered in Italy, the government also issued an order freezing all business activity deemed non-essential in an effort to keep ever more people at home and off the streets.

The businesses have until Wednesday to shut down operations and will have to remain closed until April 3.