Six people die from coronavirus after attending same funeral and falling ill

The funeral was held in South Carolina before mass gatherings were restricted and a coroner said the victims came into contact with someone who didn't known they were infected with coronavirus

Six people who attended the same funeral have all died from the coronavirus.

The victims were all over the age of 60, according to reports.

The group attended the funeral in Kershaw County in South Carolina in the first week of March, before restrictions on mass gatherings were issued.

A county coroner told The State that it was likely all victims contracted Covid-19 from the event, which was attended by a large number of people.

Others who attended the funeral are now in self-quarantine.

The coroner added: “They attended that same funeral and unfortunately passed away from Covid.

“They came back to Sumter, got sick, and I was notified they had passed.

“Unfortunately, a large amount of people congregated at that funeral, somebody there was infected with it, spread it, and just didn’t know it."

There have been 3,553 confirmed coronavirus cases in South Carolina, with 97 deaths.The victims who attended the funeral were all African Americans. Earlier this month, experts said black and Asian people may be at greater risk of more severe illness from  coronavirus  due to social, cultural and biological reasons.

Data on patients with confirmed Covid-19 from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) shows that ethnic minorities are over-represented compared with the general population.Of 1,966 patients with Covid-19, the ICNARC said 64.8% were white, 13.6% were black, 13.8% were Asian, and 6.6% were described as other.

Professor Duncan Young of intensive care medicine at the University of Oxford, said: "There are reports from the USA about far more than expected black patients being hospitalised for Covid-19."There is a possibility of a genetic cause for the disproportionate number of ICU admissions in Asian and black patients, but as it is occurring across two different ethnic groups this is not likely.

"The larger-than-expected numbers of cases in Asian and black patients may represent an effect of different social or cultural factors leading to more cases in these groups overall that is simply being reflected in ICU admissions.

"Alternatively, it may be the burden of chronic conditions predisposing to severe Covid infections and hence ICU admission is higher in these ethnic groups."