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A New Jersey woman and her daughter tested positive for the coronavirus Sunday – two additional members of the same family that saw four relatives die within days of each other and several others sickened after supposedly spreading the infection at a gathering earlier in the month.
Elizabeth Fusco, 42, of Freehold, said Sunday she and her daughter, who has unspecified underlying health conditions, have tested positive for the coronavirus, the New York Post reported. Both are continuing to quarantine in their home – a step they initially took last week as their family became possibly the worst-hit in America amid the outbreak of the novel disease.
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Elizabeth Fusco is the youngest of 11 children. She lost her mother, two brothers, and a sister last week all to the coronavirus. It is believed the infection spread between relatives at a recent family gathering on March 10.
Another relative, Gabrielle Cartagena, said on Facebook Sunday that she tested negative for the coronavirus and now just two family members remain hospitalized with the disease. Her mother is also one of the 11 children. Cartagena said she recently lost her grandmother, two uncles, and an aunt.
“As most of you have seen my family has been gravely affected my the COVID 19 pandemic sweeping the world. I am extremely grateful for all of the love and support received from everyone!!” Gabrielle Cartagena wrote on Facebook Sunday morning. “I am happy to finally put everyone’s mind at ease, I am negative for COVID -19! I still have two family members in the hospital fighting and pray they come home soon. Please everyone stay safe and healthy during this time. Hope we can all be together again soon.”
The Fusco family of New Jersey has been especially hard hit by the coronavirus.
Vincente Fusco died last Thursday at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, one day after his mother and brother died of the virus, Roseann Paradiso Fodera, a cousin and lawyer representing the Fusco family, told NJ.com. His sister died days before.
Grace Fusco, 73, a mother of 11 from Freehold, died last Wednesday at CentraState Medical Center. Her son, Carmine Fusco, a New York- and New Jersey-based horse racing trainer, died that same day at St. Luke’s University Hospital-Bethlehem Campus in Pennsylvania. Both had tested positive for the coronavirus.
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Her daughter, 55-year-old Rita Fusco-Jackson, died March 13 at the hospital in New Jersey. She tested positive for the coronavirus after her death, which deemed her the second person in New Jersey to die from a COVID-19 illness. She was a parishioner and a Confirmation teacher in the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine.
Three other family members were also initially hospitalized in critical condition last week, reports said. Nineteen additional relatives, including spouses and children of those hospitalized, were tested for the coronavirus and had quarantined themselves in their separate homes before results become available. Some later tested positive.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., helped the relatives get access to coronavirus testing after they had reached out for assistance last Tuesday, Paradiso Fodera said. Several of the test results did not come back until 3 a.m. Sunday morning, Smith said.
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“We finally got some of the results at 3 in the morning,” Smith told the New York Post. “Getting the test results as fast as possible is crucial because the longer you wait, the longer you hinder the ability to get patients what can be effective drugs.”
The family had ties to the first person to die after becoming infected with the coronavirus in New Jersey – a man named John Brennan, a horse trainer who lived in Little Ferry, NJ.com reported. His connection to the family was unclear.
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