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Four Members of One New Orleans Family Die of COVID-19 Within Eight Days: ‘Let’s Take This Serious’

A New Orleans family is still in mourning after losing four of their loved ones to the novel coronavirus within an eight-day span late last month.

The Franklin family said their final goodbyes to Timothy, Herman and Anthony Franklin Sr. at New Orleans’ St. James Methodist Church this past Friday.

Franklin family
Four members of a New Orleans family died from the novel coronavirus within eight days. (Photo: WDSU screenshots)

The remaining relatives said the three brothers, along with their mother, Antoinette, had fallen ill and tested positive for COVID-19 around the same time. Services for Antoinette Franklin took place Saturday morning.

Antoinette, 86, had been the first to die on March 23. Anthony Sr., 58, followed three days later, and Herman, 71, and Timothy, 61, both passed away on March 30, according to The Boyd Family Funeral Home.

“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 Jr. told WDSU 6 News on April 3.

As of Monday afternoon, Louisiana had seen 14,867 COVID-19 cases and 512 deaths. The state ranked fourth behind New York (4,100), New Jersey (917), and Michigan (617) in reported deaths in the U.S.

As a result of the growing number of cases in Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a stay-at-home order in March. The order, which was initially set to end on April 13, highlights social distancing as a key factor in stopping the spread of the virus and has now been extended through April 30.

Last week Edwards said Louisiana had the second-highest COVID-19 death rate per capita among states, The Associated Press reported. The governor warned residents of shortages of critical medical supplies throughout the state, especially in the New Orleans region.

He said hospitals were running low on ventilators, which are needed for patients with pre-existing respiratory conditions.

“This is obviously very helpful for states like ours because it sends a clear message that we are nowhere near over the hump, that we still have an awful lot of work to do to try to flatten the curve [slow the rate of increase of new infections], and I think it creates a realistic expectation in the public about the time horizon that we are on,” Edwards said on March 30.

Jacqueline Franklin said she wants people to take the distancing orders seriously.

“I want the world to know if it happened to the Franklin family it could happen to any family,” she 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.”

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