99-year-old World War II veteran beats coronavirus in Brazil

A 99-year-old World War II veteran in Brazil was released from hospital with military honours after recovering from the coronavirus. Second lieutenant Ermando Piveta, who served in the Brazilian artillery in Africa during World War II, was brought out of Brasilia’s Armed Forces Hospital to trumpet music and applause. Wearing an army-green side cap, he raised his arms in the air as he left after eight days as a patient. “It was a tremendous fight for me, greater than in the war. In war, you kill or live. Here, you have to fight in order to live, and you leave this fight a winner,” said Piveta. He served in the Brazilian fourth artillery regiment soon after the country entered the war on the side of the Allies, the army said. Piveta returned home with his regiment to defend Brazil from an Axis invasion that never was. “He won another battle, this time against the new coronavirus,” the military said in a statement, adding Piveta was released on the 75th anniversary of Brazil’s successful campaign in Montese, Italy. Piveta’s nation is the hardesthit country in Latin America by the coronavirus pandemic with 1,532 deaths so far, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. Meanwhile, two Brazilian state governors who have criticised President Jair Bolsonaro’s calls to relax Covid-19 containment measures said they had tested positive for the new coronavirus. Governors Wilson Witzel of Rio de Janeiro and Helder Barbalho of the northern state of Para both posted videos to Twitter announcing their diagnoses and urging people to stay home to fight the spread of the virus. Witzel, a leading proponent of closing non-essential businesses and ordering people to stay home, said he had started feeling unwell Friday, with a fever, sore throat and loss of smell, a key symptom of the virus.

“The test result has come back positive...Now, thank God, I’m feeling better, and will continue working while following my doctors’ advice,” said Witzel, 52. “I ask you once again to stay home, because this disease, as everyone can see, spreads quickly and doesn’t spare anyone.” Barbalho, 40, who said he was asymptomatic, made a similar appeal. “This virus is extremely contagious, it doesn’t recognise age or class. Everyone is exposed. So please stay home,” he said.