An African American woman and three of her sons who all tested positive for the Coronavirus have died.
The woman, Antoinette Franklin, a lifelong New Orleans resident, died March 23. Her sons, Herman Franklin Jr., 71, Anthony Franklin Sr., 58, and Timothy Franklin, 61, died from March 20 to March 30, according to their obituaries.
The brothers and their mother all tested positive for the coronavirus, Jason Melancon, a spokesman for the New Orleans Coroner’s Office, told NBC News on Tuesday.
Family members told NBC affiliate WDSU of New Orleans that all four became ill around the same time.
“My uncle passed, my grandmother passed, my dad passed, then my other uncle passed,” Anthony Franklin said. “It’s literally like seven to eight days apart. It’s horrific.”
It is unclear how they contracted the virus and the state Health Department said it could not comment about individual cases.
“I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family,” Jacqueline Franklin, who had two children with Anthony Franklin Sr., told WDSU. “Let’s take this serious. My children have to bury their father, their precious grandmother and their uncles.”
In Louisiana alone, there are 16,284 Coronavirus cases and 582 deaths out of the 383,360 infections and 12,035 fatalities in the US.