99-year-old WWII vet beats coronavirus in Brazil, gets military honours while leaving hospital

BRASILIA: A 99-year-old World War II veteran in Brazil was released from hospital with military honours Tuesday after recovering from COVID-19.

Second Lieutenant Ermando Piveta, who served in the Brazilian artillery in Africa during World War II, was brought out of the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasilia to a burst of trumpet music and applause.

Wearing an army-green side cap, he raised his arms in the air as he left the hospital after eight days as a patient.

“He won another battle, this time against the new coronavirus. He was released from hospital the same day Brazil is commemorating the 75th anniversary of its troops’ successful campaign in the Battle of Montese in Italy during World War II,” the army said in a statement.

Piveta served in the army’s fourth artillery regiment, which trained in Dakar in 1942, soon after Brazil entered the war on the side of the Allies, the army said.

He then returned to Brazil with his regiment to defend the country from an Axis invasion that never came to be.

Brazil is the hardest-hit country in Latin America in the coronavirus pandemic, with 1,532 deaths so far.