Michaelle Jean ‘devastated’ by deaths of second aunt, cousin due to COVID-19

Michaelle Jean says her family has been left “devastated” by COVID-19.

The former Governor General of Canada says days after her aunt passed away in Montreal, a second aunt and cousin have also succumbed to the virus.

“My family devastated by #coronavirus, in the space of a few days,” she said in an early morning tweet posted Saturday.

“After my aunt Edith died alone in a #LongTermCareHome in Montreal, her sister, aunt Micheline and our cousin Martiza also died, stigmatized and frightened in New York.”

“A nightmare and a lot of anxiety,” says Jean.

Of the more than 25,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities in the United States, more than a fifth of them – about 5,300 – are in New York, according to a count by The Associated Press, and the toll has been increasing by an average of 20 to 25 deaths a day for the past few weeks

The state now lists 22 nursing homes as having at least 40 deaths. Most of the facilities are in New York City and on Long Island. Sixty-two nursing homes reported between 20 and 39 deaths.

Jean’s tweet not say if her aunt and cousin were residing in a facility or had been hospitalized at the time of their deaths.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said nursing homes have become a “feeding frenzy for this virus,” noting that the facilities are under pressure from staff shortages and illness and residents’ fragility.

Cuomo has come under increasing criticism for seeming dismissive and resigned to defeat when it comes to nursing home deaths.

“We’ve tried everything to keep it out of a nursing home, but it’s virtually impossible,” Cuomo told reporters. “Now is not the best time to put your mother in a nursing home. That is a fact.”

Jean first revealed that her aunt Edith died back on April 18, saying at the time her family “could neither assist nor accompany her in her last moments.”

Jean was Canada’s Governor General from 2005 to 2010. She was also the first woman to hold the position of Secretary-General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie from 2015 to 2018.

Files from The Associated Press were used in this report