The coronavirus has devastated an entire family in Louisiana. An 86-year-old woman and her three sons tested positive for COVID-19 and have since died.
New Orleans-based Antoinette Franklin and her sons — Timothy Franklin, 61; Anthony Franklin Sr., 58; and Herman Franklin, 71– all got sick around the same time. It’s unclear how they contracted the virus, according to other family members.
Antoinette died March 23, and her sons passed between March 20 and March 30, according to their obituaries.
“My uncle passed, my grandmother passed, my dad passed, then my other uncle passed. It’s literally like 7-8 days apart. It’s horrific,” Anthony Franklin told WDSU.
“I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family,” Jacqueline Franklin said. “Let’s take this serious. My children have to bury their father, their precious grandmother and their uncles. Let’s not let this happen to another family.”
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 70: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin goes solo to discuss the COVID-19 crisis. He talks about the failed leadership of Trump, Andrew Cuomo, CDC Director Robert Redfield, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, and New York Mayor de Blasio.
The Franklin family deaths come with the recent announcement that Black people make up 70.5 percent of fatalities from the coronavirus in Louisiana, although they comprise only about a third of the population, WDSU reported.
New Orleans is expected to be the next epicenter for the pandemic.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced at a news conference that he is looking for ways for his administration to address racial disparities related to rates of sickness and death, NBC News reported.
“We’re going to try to figure out what that is attributable to and what we can do about that as quickly as possible,” he said.
