World's second-oldest person survives COVID-19 at age 116

PARIS (AP) -- Europe's oldest person, who is believed to be the second oldest person in the world, has survived Covid-19 after testing positive just a few weeks before her 117th birthday.

Sister André, a nun who was born in 1904, tested positive for the virus on January 16, according to David Tavella, communications director at the Sainte Catherine Labouré nursing home in Toulon, southern France, where she lives.

André, who was born Lucille Randon, showed no symptoms, Tavella said in an interview with public radio station France Inter.

"I didn't know I had it," André said in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV. "No, I wasn't scared because I wasn't scared of dying."

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"She didn't ask me about her health, but about her habits," David Tavella, the communications manager for the care home where the nun, told the newspaper. "For example, she wanted to know if meal or bedtime schedules would change. She showed no fear of the disease. On the other hand, she was very concerned about the other residents."

André is preparing to celebrate her 117th birthday on Thursday, and Tavella told France Inter her favorite birthday meal includes foie gras and baked Alaska.

"Sister André's birthday is taking place at a good time -- it couldn't be a better time, because it will mark the beginning of big festivities that will be organized around this relaxing of our restrictions," Tavella told BFMTV. "Our residents will be able to get out of their rooms, eat together, participate in activities."

André worked as a governess and a teacher, teaching the children to be "very polite," she told French TV station CNEWS.

She has lived through two world wars as well as the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic -- she told CNEWS she didn't catch the deadly virus -- and remains philosophical about the coronavirus.

"It will come and go," she told BFMTV. "I don't know."

André is the second-oldest person alive today, after Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who was born on January 2, 1903, according to the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

André became the oldest living person in France in October 2017 following the death of Honorine Rondello, and is the second-oldest French person ever, following Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122.

NOTE: The video in the article is from another story about a COVID-19 survivor.