Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson announced his brother has died in hospital after suffering from severe Covid-19.
Posting on Twitter this morning, Mayor Anderson said his brother succumbed to the disease in the Royal Liverpool Hospital last night despite the best efforts of staff.
He said: "Despite the efforts of all the staff @LivHospitals ICU my brother sadly died at 10.45pm last night.
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"We want to thank the dedicated staff risking their lives for us. Thank you all for your messages of love and support.
"Let’s stick together and support each other and win this battle."
The tragedy comes just five weeks after Mayor Anderson lost his other brother, Henry, to cancer.
Yesterday he announced his brother was seriously ill and urged people to watch a video taken from inside the hospital's intensive care unit and to follow the rules on social distancing.
The harrowing video, shared by Liverpool City Council on Friday, lays bare the severity of the coronavirus crisis in Liverpool's hospitals.
It shows inside a ‘red area’ at the Royal Liverpool Hospital where nurses must wear hazmat suits and Covid-19 patients are attached to ventilators.
Mayor Anderson said: "Ten minutes ago my sister-in-law, a Nursing Sister has told me my eldest brother, her husband, has got Covid-19.
"He is in the Royal @LivHospitals in the ICU in a very serious condition.
"Please watch the video, follow the rules and understand why we all need to fight the enemy #Covid."
Today a BBC Breakfast report also showed footage from inside a covid intensive care ward at the Royal, where staff warned the hospital faces becoming overwhelmed if the rates of new coronavirus admissions continue.
Dr Tristan Cope, medical director of Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We're still really stretched, at the moment we're just about coping but if admissions continue at their current rate then we'll have to take further action and that might include stopping cancer and urgent surgery as well."
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Michael Jowitt, a patient recovering from Covid-19 after a touch-and-go three day stay in intensive care, also told the BBC: "It's not fun, it's not fun at all. This is serious stuff. I thought on Sunday I was going to see my maker.
"We just need to have a step back, and see, yep some of you are OK, but by God, if you get it and you're one of the unlucky ones, then you're talking death, you are talking death."
