Medics treat an elderly patient infected with the new coronavirus, at a hospital in Tehran, Iran. File / AP

A 103-year-old woman in Iran has recovered after being infected with the new coronavirus, state media reported on Wednesday, despite overwhelming evidence the elderly are most at risk from the disease.

The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for about a week, IRNA news agency said.

But she was "discharged after making a complete recovery", Semnan University of Medical Sciences head Navid Danayi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The woman was the second elderly patient in Iran to have survived the disease.

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The other was a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of Iran, the news agency said.

After being sick for three days, he recovered on Monday despite having pre-existing medical conditions including high blood pressure and asthma, it added. The report did not say how the pair were treated.

Since Iran announced its first deaths on Feb.19, the novel coronavirus has spread to all of the country's 31 provinces and killed nearly 1,000 people.

Bank employees wear protective face masks and clothes, following the outbreak of coronavirus, during the work in Tehran. Reuters

The elderly are the most vulnerable to the disease, which first emerged in China late last year.

The World Health Organisation this month estimated the novel coronavirus kills 3.4 percent of all those infected.

But for people aged over 80 the fatality rate was 21.9 percent, according to a report the WHO carried out with the Chinese authorities.

Agence France-Presse