A mother and two of her children have died within days of each other after testing positive for coronavirus, according to US media.

Grace Fusco, 73, died on Wednesday night just hours after her eldest son Carmine passed away, the New York Times reports.

Rita Fusco-Jackson, the eldest of Mrs Fusco's 11 children, died just five days before.

All three had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Mrs Fusco and her 55-year-old daughter were being treated at the CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, New Jersey, where they lived.


Carmine Fusco died at a Pennsylvania hospital near his home in Bath.

Roseann Paradiso Fodera, Mrs Fusco's cousin and the family lawyer, said four of Mrs Fusco's other children have also contracted coronavirus.

She added all four are in hospital and three are in a critical condition.

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Ms Paradiso Fodera said Mrs Fusco died after spending Wednesday "gravely ill" and breathing with the help from a ventilator.

The family lawyer added that she was unaware two of her children had died.

Nearly 20 other relatives are mourning while isolated due to the virus spread.

Ms Paradiso Fodera said: "If they're not on a respirator, they're quarantined.

"It is so pitiful.

"They can't even mourn the way you would."

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A person who came into contact with the first person to die from coronavirus in New Jersey had reportedly attended a recent Fusco family gathering.

Ms Paradiso Fodera said the gathering was a routine Tuesday dinner.

The family has deep ties to the horse-racing industry near Freehold Raceway in New Jersey.

Mr Fusco's husband Vincenzo, who died in 2017, had both ridden and trained horses, according to his obituary.

There have been 9,415 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US with 150 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University which is tracking the virus.