The 'Jungle Cruise' actor, who also lost his grandmother to the virus, took to Instagram to plead with fans to get vaccinated.
Edgar Ramirez has lost more family members to COVID-19. The Jungle Cruise star, who previously revealed that his grandmother had died from the deadly virus, took to Instagram to reveal that he's lost both his aunt and uncle to the virus.
"Unfortunately the miracle didn't happen. After a gruesome agony my aunt Lucy died on Saturday. And after being stabilized for a few days and in only a matter of hours, my uncle Guillermo collapsed and died on Sunday. In less than 24 hours, COVID had taken both of their lives. We had not yet collected my aunt's ashes when we were due to incinerate my uncle's body," Ramirez began.
The news comes just days after Ramirez's conversation with the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, Dr. Anthony Fauci, where he was sharing his family's coronavirus story, all while hoping for a miracle for his late aunt that sadly did not come.
"Then on Monday, still unable to process the shock and horror from the weekend, we woke up to the news that my Aunt Nidia's brother in law, Rafael, a dear friend, had also died after months battling with COVID complications. They all died exactly a month and two days after COVID had taken the life of my grandmother Bertha and 4 months since it took the life of my Venezuelan agent and dear friend, Laureano," he continued.
As he and his family grieve and suffer this unimaginable pain, the 44-year-old Venezuelan actor pleaded with the American people to appreciate and utilize the access to vaccines that his family in Venezuela did not have the luxury of.
"None of them had been vaccinated. None had access to a vaccine in Venezuela," he added. "Meanwhile, tens of thousands of vaccines are being thrown away in the United States because a large number of people didn't want them. It breaks my heart that so many in this country are willing to snub the very vaccine my family would have taken in an instant."
Ramirez used the moment to urge his fans to listen to his conversation with Dr. Fauci, and most importantly, get vaccinated.
"Lastly, I encourage you all to follow science and truthful information, and please, please, please...If you can, get vaccinated, so you can help save those around you," he said, concluding his impassioned post.
When ET spoke with Ramirez at the Jungle Cruise premiere in July, he touched on celebrating the movie and the happy moment in his career while dealing with the hard week his family was facing as a result of the coronavirus.
"I brought my entire family, my mom is here, my dad is here. I'm very happy that my mom is here, I mean, it's been a very hard week for my family, a lot of deaths from COVID. My grandmother died this week," Ramirez said at the time.
The Yes Day star also used the moment to urge fans to get vaccinated, telling ET that while a huge effort was made for the cast, crew, fans and media to attend the premiere in a "safe way," it's not quite over yet.
"I have to take every opportunity to invite people to get vaccinated, to trust science, to follow recommendations. This is not over, you know?" he stressed.
Ramirez continued, "A lot of people made a huge effort for us to be here in a safe way. But we're not there yet. This is a huge effort just for us to be here, for you to be here, for me to be here, and be safe. So, I just want everyone to think about others, and also to protect themselves, and to protect others. We're going to get through this, and it will be a bad and horrible memory and we're going to learn from this, but we're not at the end of this yet, so we need to be careful."
For more on the actor, watch the video below.
RELATED CONTENT
