XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.coronavirus, alt.obituaries
XPost: sac.politics

A British family is urging people to take social distancing
measures seriously after 17 of its members apparently caught the
coronavirus at the funeral of a relative who died of the
illness, according to a report.

Almost the entire extended family of Sheila Brooks, 86, who died
Feb. 9, attended her funeral two weeks ago — and within days,
her niece Susan Nelson, 65, who had no underlying health issues,
also died, South West News Service reported.

Before long, 16 other relatives fell ill, including Nelson’s
husband, daughter Amanda, 34, a niece and a great-uncle, after
attending the service in Yardley Wood, according to the news
outlet.

“It was my [great] aunt’s funeral so a lot of the wider family
were there,” said Amanda, who also suffers from Addison’s
disease, an adrenal insufficiency, and is isolating at home.

“She died back in February, but we have just had so many people
contract the virus that I can only think it was from then. We
now have someone else in our family in hospital that’s probably
not going to survive it,” she continued.

“My 21-year-old cousin has it, right the way up to a great-uncle
that is 88 and is showing some symptoms. It’s a whole section of
us, none of us seems to have been missed out of it just yet.
It’s a bit strange,” she said.

“I would say around 17 family members have been displaying
symptoms since going to that funeral. It’s hit young and old in
our family,” Amanda added.

“Our beautiful, caring mum was the center of the family. We are
a very close, large family and this has destroyed us.”

Nelson’s son Carl, 42, said she was admitted at Queen Elizabeth
Hospital in Birmingham on March 23.

“She was coughing a lot, very breathless and showing all the
traditional symptoms,” he said. “They said the next 48 hours
were critical before they called me back a few hours later to
say it was very close to the end and one member of the family
could be with her.

“Because I had none of the symptoms, I couldn’t go and my sister
was too unwell battling the illness herself,” he said. “People
can end up dying on their own. Fortunately, my dad Robert was
able to go and be with her when she died.”

Carl added: “We can’t have any other families to go through what
we are going through at the moment.

“It’s about getting the message out. It’s about seeing the faces
of loved ones and thinking this is real,” he added.

https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/family-of-17-reportedly-gets- coronavirus-after-attending-funeral/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)