By Dana Kennedy

At least two more members of the tragic New Jersey family ravaged by coronavirus have tested positive for the disease that’s already killed four of their kin and sickened eight others.

Elizabeth Fusco, the youngest of 11 children in a large, close-knit family, lost her mother and three siblings over the next few days, has herself tested positive.

Even worse, her daughter, who has a preexisting health condition, has tested positive, too.

Just one day after she learned of their test results, Elizabeth Fusco told The Post Saturday that she was still cooking dinner for her family that night.

“I have family to feed,” she said while preparing the meal. “My mother in her worst years, whenever she was scared or having a bad time, she cooked. So guess what I’m doing? I’m cooking.

“I feel very sad,” she went on. “I lost family but I still have to feed my family. I remember my sister and my mom when I’m cooking. In this world there is no promise of tomorrow. No one can assume anything.”

Fusco said both she and her daughter are asymptomatic and that they both have already been self-isolating.

Her daughter is choosing to stay under quarantine because she has some underlying, although not serious, medical conditions.

“She’s been cleared,” Elizabeth Fusco said. “We just choosing to keep her quarantined for her own safety.”

Fusco said she will also be remaining in quarantine following doctor’s guidelines.

The awful news came after Elizabeth and a family friend reached out to New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith Tuesday night, imploring him for help getting tested, Fusco family spokeswoman Roseann Paradiso Fodera said.

“Congressman Smith was a huge help to us,” she said.

Smith said he was on the phone with the family “about 50 times” trying to track down the test results.

“We finally got some of the results at 3 in the morning,” Smith said. “Getting the test results as fast as possible is crucial because the longer you wait, the longer you hinder the ability to get patients what can be effective drugs.”

On Thursday, Elizabeth described to CNN her late mother and siblings as “the roots of our life. They were the core of our family since our dad’s been gone. The second we start to grieve about one, the phone rings and there’s anther person gone, taken from us forever.”

The virus has so far claimed Rita Fusco-Jackson, 55, a religion teacher at the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine in Freehold; eldest son Carmine Fuscio, 55, of Bath., Pa.; Vincent Fusco Jr.; and family’s matriarch, Grace Fusco, 73. She passed Wednesday without knowing the virus had already claimed two of her kids’ lives.

The above article original was published online in the March 21 edition of the New Pork Post newspaper, and can be found online at:
https://nypost.com/2020/03/21/two-more-members-of-tragic-new-jersey-family-infected-with-coronavirus/