Fourteen members of the same family in Texas have reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and one has died.
Dallas resident Tony Green, 43, who tested positive for the contagious respiratory virus and has since recovered, appeared on Inside Edition last week, sharing his emotions about how his family has been impacted by COVID-19.
"Hurt, pain, hopelessness," he said. "We're praying."
In an interview with NBC News, Green said that he and his partner of nine years hosted their parents for a small gathering on June 13. Nobody wore a mask at the event, and the following day Green fell ill.
Two days later, Green said that his parents and his partner were also sick.
"We just felt the worst was behind the country because everything was easy, things were reopening and none of us were experiencing any symptoms," he told NBC News.
Green's partner's parents became ill in June, too, after they traveled from Dallas to Austin for another family gathering to celebrate a birth. Following that get-together, even more family members fell ill with the virus. The ages of the family members who tested positive were not reported, and it was not clear whether they had any underlying health conditions.
His partner's grandmother ended up contracting COVID-19 as well and died on July 2 in the hospital room right next to her sons, NBC News reported.
Now that so many close to him have contracted COVID-19, Green told NBC News that he regrets holding a get-together for his and his partners' parents.
"I cannot help but feel responsible for convincing our families it was safe to have a get-together," he said. "There's a lot of things that I would have done differently."
Green told NBC News that 12 of the 14 family members have either recovered or are currently recovering, the outlet reported.
Texas had more than 4,000 positive cases on Monday alone, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. There have been at least 385,923 cases reported in the state, and 5,713 deaths related to the virus. Nationwide, there have been more than 4.2 million positive cases.
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