A 76-year-old woman and a 70-year-old man, both of whom had tested positive for Covid-19, have been cured and discharged from hospital. Doctors are citing their cases to drive home the point that all is not lost even if an elderly person gets the infection.

It is true that the aged are more vulnerable to Covid-19, doctors said, but there are examples in almost every country of people above 60 returning home from hospital after defeating the virus.

The condition of one of the two elderly patients, both of who were treated at the Infectious Diseases and Beleghata General Hospital, turned critical but he did not need to be put on ventilator.

The 70-year-old man, from Madhyamgram, was discharged on Thursday and the 76-year-old woman, from Narendrapur, on April 4. Both are hale and hearty and without any complications, they told Metro.

“When I was admitted to hospital, doctors asked me if I was feeling scared. I told them why should I when there were so many doctors, nurses and other specialists all around? Their job was to help me recover and they did it very well,” the woman said.

The man, too, said unnecessary panic would only worsen the situation. “I will tell everyone to follow basic hygiene. Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth, especially after touching a surface because you do not know whether it is contaminated or not. Also wash your hands with soap and water frequently. Always wear a mask when you are out. That is all we need to do as common people,” he said.

The WHO website mentions that “older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus”. But it also adds: “Most of the people who catch Covid-19 can recover and eliminate the virus from their bodies”.

The website also mentions that “people of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)”.

According to the state health department’s Friday bulletin, 55 people have been cured of Covid-19 and discharged from hospital in Bengal. Figures provided by the Union health ministry show 1,749 people have been cured across the country.

A doctor at the Beleghata hospital who treated both patients said that while the man had developed some complications, the woman was fit and fine all through. What amazed the doctor was the courage of both. “They had such positivity that we, the medical service providers, felt energised seeing and talking to them,” said the doctor.

The doctor said the man had severe respiratory distress and low blood oxygen levels when he was admitted. He had to be administered high-flow oxygen. Doctors suspected that he had developed “a secondary bacterial infection, superimposed on Covid-19, which exacerbated his breathing difficulty”.

The woman said though she did not develop any complications from Covid-19, she had breathing trouble for long and used an inhaler as advised by a doctor. Besides, as a patient of rheumatoid arthritis she was on immunosuppressant, which made her immunity compromised and doctors were worried about it.

“We managed to cure them. These two patients prove that even someone above 60 can survive after catching the virus. Keep faith in doctors, nurses and keep faith in science,” the doctor said.

The woman was a contact of a patient from Calcutta, who had gone to Egra to attend a wedding. “I was first quarantined at a hospital in East Midnapore’s Egra. When I tested positive, I was brought to the Beleghata ID Hospital,” she said.

The 70-year-old man, a resident of Madhyamgram, said that people should be extra cautious to avoid catching the infection. He said though his recovery was timely and without much difficulty for him, it was a lonely one. “Throughout the days I had only to eat and sleep at the hospital. There was nothing else to do. I was kept in a cabin with glass partitions through which I could see others in the ward, but we could not interact. It is this loneliness during the recovery that bothered me. This was painful,” he said

The other factor that bothered him was that because of his catching the infection, his family and friends had to be quarantined at Barsat. The woman’s son, daughter-in-law and grandson too were quarantined at MR Bangur.

The advice for both the septuagenarians during their discharge was to stay indoors for another 14 days at least. While the man just started his home quarantine after release from hospital on Thursday, the woman would be done with the 14-day home quarantine period on Saturday. “At home too, I have maintained a safe distance from my son, daughter-in-law and grandson.