Coronavirus: Chilean woman Juana Zuniga becomes country’s oldest survivor at 111

Juana Zúñiga tested positive for Covid-19 in April

A 111-year-old woman has become the oldest Covid-19 patient in Chile to recover from the infection, officials have said.

Juana Zúñiga tested positive for the disease amid an outbreak of cases at the Santiago care home where she lives.

She had already been suffering from respiratory problems when she caught the infection in April, staff said.

Staff at the care home also said Ms Zúñiga, who is known as Juanita, was only mildly affected by the disease.

“Taking her out of her habitat was the most difficult thing,” the director of the care home, María Paz Sordo said.

“She did not have any symptoms and very few bouts of fever, which was good,” Sordo added.

Zúñiga was separated from the other residents and placed in an isolation ward for 28 days where she was cared for by the government’s National Service for the Elderly.

She officially recovered on 10 May, making her the oldest person in Chile to do so.

The centenarian has been a resident of the care home ever since her sister, with whom she lived, died six years ago.

Zúñiga is originally from Valparaíso which is about 89 miles northwest of Santiago on the Chilean coast.

She has never married or had any children and used to have her own business before retiring.

She is set to turn 112 in July.

Chile has more than 82,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 800 people have died.