Elderly Louisiana Woman and Her Three Sons Die After Contracting Coronavirus

*The novel coronavirus has hit one Louisiana family hard, as an 86-year-old woman and three of her sons have died after each tested positive for the contagion. 

The mother, Antoinette Franklin, and her sons Herman Franklin Jr., 71, Anthony Franklin Sr., 58 and Timothy Franklin, 61, died between March 20 and 30, according to their obituaries, NBC News reports. 

Jason Melancon, a spokesman for the New Orleans Coroner’s Office, said it’s unclear if COVID-19 tests were conducted on the family before or after they died. At the time of this report, their causes of death remain undetermined.

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Family members told NBC affiliate WDSU in New Orleans all four became ill around the same time, but it’s unclear how they contracted the virus. 

Antoinette died March 23. Herman, a father of eight, died on March 20. Anthony passed away on March 26. He is survived by his two children, their mother and a fiancée. Timothy died on March 30, the report states. 

“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.”

“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.”

Meanwhile, Louisiana has confirmed 16,284 coronavirus cases and 582 deaths.

More than 70 percent of Louisianans who have died from COVID-19 are Black Americans, and the leading underlying issue is hypertension, according to reports.

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