Arizona Man Loses Mom, Sister, Aunt, Cousin, Niece to COVID in Just 10 Days

An Arizona man lost five members of his family to COVID in just 10 days, according to a report.

Jason Bennett from Tempe told ABC15 that his mom, sister, aunt, cousin and niece had all died from the disease, which has now killed more than five million people worldwide.

"It's a tragedy," Bennett said. "I don't even know what to say anymore. Like, five people?"

The man said his Christian faith provided him with a small degree of comfort but that the passing of the family members was extremely distressing.

"It's devastating the emotional rollercoaster we're all on. It's just immense man," he told ABC15.

"I cry about every 10 minutes. The other 10 minutes I'm trying to laugh and be joyous over their memories. I know they went to heaven because we are all Christian. That's the the little solace I have," he said.

Bennett said his family took COVID seriously and that three of the five who died had been vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that some fully vaccinated people will get sick with COVID and some will even be hospitalized or die.

But breakthrough cases—when a fully vaccinated person gets infected—are rare due to the effectiveness of the vaccines. As of October 18, 189 million people in the United States had been fully vaccinated against COVID—and out of this number, around 10,800 had died from breakthrough infections.

The risk of infection, hospitalization and death are all significantly lower in vaccinated people compared to the unvaccinated, according to the CDC. The agency recommends that everyone over 12 years of age get a shot as soon as possible if they haven't already.

Bennett said: "a lot of people don't take it serious enough. It's deadly."

The man also lost three other family members to COVID last year.

"I never expected this. Never. I hope everyone masks up, practices distance, stays healthy, and prays more," he said.

Bennett said he would particularly miss being able to learn from his mom: "Messing up and getting lessons, her wisdom, her knowledge, her personality, her teaching me new things. I'm gonna miss that from all of them."

Bennett is now in the process of planning five separate burials. He has set up a fundraiser to help raise money for the funeral expenses.

"They are loved by all my siblings and the rest of my family members who are trying to mourn and also figure out how to do this financially with all 5 [bodies] to bury and put them to rest," Bennett wrote on the GoFundMe page. "God Bless you and I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart."

So far, the fundraiser has received around $1,800 in donations, with a goal set for $50,000.

Bennett described his mom as a "wonderful" and "awesome" on the GoFundMe page description.

"We are going to miss her knowledge and the lessons she would give to us. My other family members will be loved and missed very dearly."

To date, more than 21,000 Arizonans have died from COVID, with the state having recorded over 1.1 million cases of the disease.

COVID has been the source of countless family tragedies across America.

Among them, a 44-year-old woman who died in Georgia from COVID in September just one month after her husband passed from the same disease.