NBA star’s mother in coma with COVID-19 symptoms
Towns hopes fans start to understand severity of disease
Minnesota Timberwolves centre Karl-Anthony Towns is urging fans on social media to protect themselves from the coronavirus after his mother was placed in a medically induced coma as she battles symptoms of COVID-19.
Towns said in an emotional video posted to his Instagram page that both of his parents went to the hospital after feeling ill for a few days.
While his father was discharged to quarantine, the health of his mother, Jacqueline Cruz, “kept getting worse” because her cough and fever weren’t improving. Towns said results aren’t back, but it’s believed she has the coronavirus.
“She just wasn’t getting better,” the 24-year-old Towns said. “Her fever was never cutting from 103, maybe go down to 101.9 with the meds, and then immediately spike back up during the night. She was very uncomfortable. Her lungs were getting worse, her cough was getting worse. She was deteriorating. She was deteriorating — and we always felt that the next medicine would help. This is the one that’s going to get it done. This mixture is going to get it done.”
Towns said in the video that he hopes his story helps others during the coronavirus pandemic and that “everyone understands the severity of what’s happening in the world right now.”
A Boston Red Sox minor leaguer tested positive for the coronavirus, and the team has shut down its Fenway South complex in Fort Myers, Fla., as a precaution.
The team announced the positive test, but didn’t identify the player. He last was seen at the training site on March 15 and returned home, where the test was taken, the team announced.
“Given the timing of the player’s positive test and travel, we believe it’s more likely that he contracted COVID -19 after he left Fort Myers. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, the club is shutting down Fenway South from all activity effective today, for at least two weeks,” the team statement said.
The Red Sox said the facility will undergo extensive cleaning.
The team said the affected player is doing well. All players who came in contact with him have been instructed to self-quarantine for two weeks. England’s Tommy Fleetwood said Europe’s Ryder Cup title defence should be postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, to give all golfers a fair chance to qualify.
The biennial contest between Europe and the United States is scheduled to be played in Wisconsin from Sept. 25-27.
But a string of European Tour and U.S. PGA Tour events have been suspended due to the coronavirus, while the Masters and PGA Championship are looking for new dates.
“It would be a shame and feel weird to have to wait for so long after the last Ryder Cup, but you just have to take whatever comes. And it would be fairer in qualification terms for it to be pushed back,” Fleetwood told the Times newspaper.