Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter
Marina has tested positive for COVID like her father, sources
said Monday.
Marina Berlusconi, 54, is chairwoman of the family holding
company Fininvest and also chairwoman of the Mondadori
publishing group.
She is one of Italy's most successful businesswomen.
Fininvest sources said she was well and continuing to work on
the phone.
She has been in isolation with her family in their Milanese home
since last Wednesday when her father tested positive for the
virus.
It is not known whether the other members of her family, who are
protected by privacy rules, are also COVID-positive.
But ANSA has learned that her husband and her two children, both
minors, are in good condition too.
Silvio Berlusconi, meanwhile, spent a "tranquil" fourth night in
Milan's San Raffaele Hospital, sources said.
His personal doctor, San Raffaele intensive care ward chief
Alberto Zangrillo, will issue a fresh bulletin on the condition
of the 83-year-old three-time premier and media magnate at 16:00
Monday.
Berlusconi has a "bland" lung condition and is not in intensive
care, Zangrillo said Friday.
Zangrillo said that Berlusconi's medical history and his age,
almost 84, "impose absolute caution".
The general condition of the centre-right Forza Italia (FI)
leader is "tranquil and comforting", he said.
A CAT scan revealed that he is suffering from early-stage double
pneumonia, a common symptom in COVID patients, especially those
of Berlusconi's age.
Berlusconi, who had been in domestic isolation at his villa
outside Milan since Wednesday, was taken into the San Raffaele
Thursday night, as a precautionary measure, FI said.
Berlusconi, who turns 84 on September 29, had a faulty heart
valve replaced in 2016.
Berlusconi said Thursday he was "quite well" and would take part
"in all possible ways" in the campaign for local elections on
September 20 and 21.
The former AC Milan owner's partner, a 30-year-old FI MP, has
also tested positive for the virus, as have his daughter Barbara
and his son Luigi.
Berlusconi, formerly the owner of seven-time European soccer
champs Milan, was long the undisputed leader of Italy's centre
right.
But FI was overtaken a few years ago by Matteo Salvini's surging
League, a nationalist, Euroskeptic and anti-migrant populist
party.
More recently FI has also been surpassed by another nationalist
populist party, Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI).
Berlusconi has served three terms as premier, starting in 1994
and ending in 2011, becoming by far the most successful
conservative politician since the early 1990s Bribesville
scandals swept the old order away.
Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in 2014, ejected from the
Senate, and given a year's community service.
He was also banned from public office, a ban which later
expired.
He was elected to the European Parliament after the ban ran out.
Berlusconi, as well as far his unparelled political success, has
also been in the news for other legal woes including the mafia
conviction of his former closest aide and alleged 'bunga bunga'
parties for which he was convicted of paying for sex with an
underage prostitute.
The conviction was later lifted after judges rued he could not
have known that the sex worker, Ruby Heartstealer, was a minor.
Berlusconi had parliament vote that the girl, a teen
Moroccan-Italian runaway whose real name was Kharima El Mahroug,
was the niece of late Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak, to help
his for legal cause.
Berlusconi has two children by his first wife homemaker Carla
Elvira Dall'Oglio: Marina, 54, and Piersilvio, 51.
He has three children by his second wife, former actress
Veronica Lario: Barbara, 36, Eleonora, 34, and Luigi, 31.
Piersilvio and Eleonora have so far not tested positive for the
coronavirus.
Piersilvio is Fininvest CEO, while his children by Lario, who
filed for divorvce saying he was consorting with minors, have
lesser roles in his business empire.
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