MIAMI — In Columbia County, which now leads Florida in COVID-19 cases per capita, 17-year-old Jo’Keria Graham died just days before she started her senior year of high school. The teen, who loved taking care of kids and called her grandparents daily to check on them or help at their office, was still in quarantine at her Lake City home after testing positive for COVID days before school started.
The high schooler had seemed to be on the mend and asked her grandparents to bring her breakfast. Her family was on the phone with her grandparents on their way to drop off breakfast when she collapsed in the bathroom earlier this month.
“She was saying, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe’,” her grandmother Tina Graham said Friday, noting the teen was buried in her cap and gown.
“We thought she was doing fine. Both of my sons had it and one of my sons was really really sick and she wasn’t near as sick as he was,” Graham said.
MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:
— COVID-19 deaths straining some hospital morgues in Florida.
— More virus shots, studies offer hope for U.S. schools
— COVID-19 surge pummels Hawaii and its native population
— More US states seeing record hospitalizations, rising toll on children
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— Find more AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine
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