What was supposed to be a musical celebration turned into a scary experience for a family gospel group when several members were infected with COVID-19 after performing a virtual concert.
CNN reports that the Jones Family Singers, a family group of gospel singers from Houston, Texas, believe that a virtual concert that they performed in a recording studio in late June resulted in five of them coming down with coronavirus.
Ernestine Ray was the first to experience symptoms on July 3. She was hospitalized for COVID-19 and kidney failure at Houston Methodist Hospital where, a day later, her father Pastor Fred Jones, 71, was also rushed for treatment of COVID-19.
Ray’s sister, Velma Davis, was also hospitalized at Houston Methodist for coronavirus. Their sister Sabrina Freeman, who woke up struggling to breathe after testing positive on July 5, was taken to Houston Methodist by ambulance. “Can you take me to the same hospital as my sisters and daddy? Can you put me on the same floor? Can I be in the same room?” Freeman, 55, said she asked the paramedics.
Another sister, Theresa Jones, tested positive for the novel virus but did not need to be hospitalized.
Though the three sisters and their father were all in the same hospital, they were on different floors and unable to see each other. The women were each hospitalized for four days, but the pastor spent two weeks in the hospital. “Man, that broke my heart. Time got away from me that fast,” shared Jones, who initially thought he had only been in the hospital for four days until a nurse told him otherwise.
Jones said that five months later, his lungs are scarred and things like walking up a flight of stairs are difficult. He also suffered hearing damage and now has to wear a hearing aid.
The family, which has toured in hundreds of cities around the world and has performed at the South by Southwest Festival and at Lincoln Center in New York City, hopes that they will soon be able to once again perform on stage together. “That's something we live for. To be able to come together with our family and stand on the stage or wherever God has to be able to sing,” shared Davis.
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