The Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns tests positive for COVID-19 as the National Basketball Association struggles to contain the novel coronavirus disease.
After COVID-19 has devastated his family, Karl-Anthony Towns announced on Friday night that he had contracted the COVID-19 a few hours before they were to host the Memphis Grizzlies in Minnesota.
Minneapolis. The league later called off Friday night’s game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies. This has been the 13th game postponed for the season with the league grappling with the spread of the virus.
The 25-year old Timberwolves center wrote on Twitter, while in isolation:
“I pray every day that this nightmare of a virus will subside and I beg everyone to continue to take it seriously by taking all of the necessary precautions,” Townssaid on Twitter. He added that, “we cannot stop the spread of this virus alone, it must be a group effort by all of us. It breaks my heart that my family, and particularly my father and sister continue to suffer from the anxiety that comes along with this diagnosis as we know all too well what the end result could be.”
Timberwolves’ President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas said Town is one of two people who tested positive within the organization in the last two days. Rosas said on Twitter, “For him to have to go through this … it’s heartbreaking.” “It hurt. Karl is the most important part of this organization. For what he’s gone through and Karl Sr. has gone through, it’s heartbreaking.”
Seven of Towns family members died from COVID-19:
Karl Towns Sr., the father of the all-star player was also hospitalized with the coronavirus last year but has since recovered.
Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, 58, a nurse and the mother of Town died in April 2020 due to complications from COVID-19 after more than a month of fighting the virus. His mom, a native of the Dominican Republic, was placed in medically induced coma. Cruz-Towns received care at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia and JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey.
Towns also announced in December last year that he also lost six other family members from coronavirus which include his grandma and uncle.
The all-star player has played four games this season for Minnesota. Towns is in his sixth year in the league and played this season with a lingering wrist injury.
Towns has been advocating for persons to take the COVID-19 pandemic seriously but despite coronavirus cases have been increasing in countries throughout the Caribbean region which he has ties to the Dominican Republic. A total of 2,370 daily new cases were reported in the Dominican Republic on Saturday. Most of the new cases are being reported in Greater Santo Domingo and in the Santiago Province from Friday’s report by the health department. Over 191,000 have contracted the virus since the pandemic commenced in the Dominican Republic of which 2,432 persons are deceased.
The pandemic is blazing throughout the United States and have clocked over 4,000 daily deaths. A total of 4,400 people died in the United States on Tuesday, which is an all time record. Daily new cases in the United States reach over 238,000 on Thursday.
“I don’t even recognize most of my other games and years I’ve played and how I felt histhose days,” the Timberwolves Center said on Twitter last month.
“If I can be honest with ya’ll for a second, I mean, I don’t really recall or really care. I only understand what happened from April 13th on.
“Because you may see me smiling and stuff, but that Karl died on April 13. He’s never coming back, I don’t remember that man. You’re talking to the physical me, but my soul has been killed off a long time ago.”
Towns concluded his tweet with a pledge to his family.
“To my niece and nephew, Jolani and Max, I promise you I will not end up in a box next to grandma and I will beat this,” he wrote.
Towns averaged 26.5 points and 10.8 rebounds per game last season.
Three more games were postponed on Friday by the NBA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This brings the total postponed games to 13 with less than a month into the 2020-21 season.
The league will be issuing new health and safety guidelines to deal with the pandemic.
