Anitha Vinod, the first person to recover from Covid-19 virus in Bihar, says her firm faith in Jesus and strict adherence to government guidelines has saved her from the deadly disease.

“I got scared when the first report came on March 22. But that did not shake my belief in God,” said the 45-year-old Protestant woman, who is now at her home in Digha, a western suburb in Patna, after being discharged on March 30 from a hospital in the state capital.

The native of Kerala, who married Vinod Venkatraman, a social worker from Tamil Nadu, said she read the Bible in the hospital to fight her loneliness and anxiety.

She and her husband, who is also a Bible teacher, had gone to Nepal on March 2 but had to return to Patna six days later to meet her elder son Vivin, who returned from Italy. “Vivin returned from Pisa via Rome and Delhi on March 5. He was kept under two-week home isolation until March 18. He also went through medical screening at Delhi and Rome airports,” Anitha told reporters.