Panama  construction magnate  Herman  Bern the victim of a flurry of fake news reports of his death, from the Covid-19 virus has recovered after 58  days in the intensive care unit of a private hospital, including over  30 days with mechanical ventilation.

Bern 73, got the news  that a second test  to see if he still had the killer virus was negative  from a doctor’s videophone message   which he quickly passed on with the tagline: “I’m alive “

"I was close to being a death statistic, , but I am alive,"  an exhausted Bern, visibly excited, told AFP.

"I spent about three weeks in a coma, I don't remember what happened. When you have a fever your mind starts to wander and think about all kinds of things. The first few days I couldn't move absolutely anything," says Bern.

His case has been one of the most talked-about in Panama as he became the subject of fake news that circulated on social networks announcing his death.

"He spent approximately 15 days when we did not know if we would manage to save him, every day we thought he was going to die," says the intensivist doctor, Lillian Tang.

But Bern now only thinks about recovering: "I no longer have the virus in my body, and now I will recover all that strength that I have lost," he said.