Iowa City, Iowa – First, his mother became ill, apparently sick from the egg factory where he worked.
Then his 22-year-old sister, a new mother who was hooked up to a respirator to help her breathe, became ill. Then, the coronavirus went after her father, Jose Gabriel Martinez, 58, who died on Tuesday in the same hospital where he lived his last days near his daughter.
After a month of caring for his affected family with coronavirus, firefighter Omar Martinez plans a funeral for his father, who worked in a factory and was known for giving everything to support his family. She hopes her sister Evelyn recovers, who is alert after being disconnected from the respirator on Thursday. And she fears having to give him the news about her father.
Omar, 29, appreciates that his mother has recovered and that he, two brothers, and his two-year-old niece have remained healthy. He is also touched by the support he has received from neighbors in West Liberty, a city of 3,800 inhabitants, most of them Hispanic, where his family settled after migrating from Mexico in the 1990s.
Omar Martínez holds a photo of his father, Jose Gabriel Martínez.
(The Associated Press)
He wants people to know how easy the virus can spread and how quickly it can devastate an entire family.
“It only takes one person who is irresponsible to affect a family that does not deserve it”Omar Martinez said in an interview. “I do not wish this on anyone. Every day they ask me how I do it. I don’t have an answer, “he added.
The situation of the Martinez family illustrates the alarming racial and ethnic disparities between those who are becoming infected and die from the coronavirus.
While Latinos represent 6% of Iowa’s population, they have accounted for more than 22% of confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the state Department of Public Health. The disparity widened as more tests were conducted on factory workers, who are disproportionately Latino and account for more than a quarter of Iowa’s confirmed cases. State officials said population density also plays a role.
The virus has spread faster in Iowa, which now has more than 5,000 confirmed cases., than in almost any other state in the last days. In West Liberty, a turkey processing factory that has long attracted immigrants to the area reported that 52 workers had tested positive.
– .
