Angelina Friedman
Angelina Friedman — a Westchester County nursing home resident with "an iron will to live" — battled COVID-19 back in March, as well as in October, her daughter told WPIX-TV.
"She's not the oldest to survive COVID, but she may be the oldest to survive it twice," Joanne Merola told the outlet.
The centenarian was born Angelina Sciales on Oct. 18, 1918, on a ship taking immigrants from Italy to the Big Apple in the midst of the influenza, Merola said.
Friedman's mother died in childbirth on the ship, and she was raised with the help of her two sisters.
Her father later joined Friedman and her 10 siblings in America and the family settled in Brooklyn.
She was one of 11 children," Merola said. "She's the last one surviving."
She later married a man named Harold Friedman, and the couple both battled cancer later in life — though Angelina was the only one who survived the disease.
She's now a resident of North Westchester Restorative Therapy and Nursing Center in Mohegan Lake, and has lost most of her hearing and vision, though not her energy, Merola said.
Friedman first tested positive for COVID-19 in March, when she was still 101-years-old.
She spent a week in the hospital before being sent back to her room at the nursing home, where she quarantined.
After running a fever on and off for several weeks, Friedman tested negative for the virus on April 20, and her daughter told PIX11 at the time that "My mother is a survivor."
"She survived miscarriages, internal bleeding and cancer."
Six months later, Merola heard her mom had been diagnosed with COVID-19 again and was experiencing symptoms such as fever and a dry cough.
Friedman went back into isolation until Nov. 17, when she tested negative, her daughter said.
"Not only has she beaten COVID at 101, she's beaten it at 102," Merola said.
Comment: This woman has one strong immune system - we salute her! As for testing positive for Covid a second time, that is debatable, considering the high rate of false positives from PCR tests.