A World War Two centurion has died of the coronavirus 100 years after his brother died during the Spanish Flu.
Philip Kahn had been fearful of another pandemic happening during his lifetime, his grandson Warren Zysman said.
Before his death he had been the oldest person in Nassau County, New York.
Just weeks after Philip was born on December 5, 2019, his twin brother Samuel died of the Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people globally and about 675,000 in the United States,
"I would have conversations with him, he would say to me, 'I told you history repeats itself, 100 years is not that long of a period of time'," Warren told CNN.
During WWII Philip was a sergeant with the US Army Air Force.
Do you have a coronavirus story? Email webnews@mirror.com
He worked as both an engineer and a pilot, keeping the warplanes fueled.
He received two Bronze Battle Stars for his service in WWII.
In the days before his death on April 17 Philip started coughing and experiencing issues with his breathing.
Warren said: "He talked about his brother a lot in the last few days."
Philip was tested for the coronavirus, but his family did not receive the results until after his death.
Warren said that his granddad's thoughts were never far from Samuel.
"It clearly made a hole in his heart that he never got to meet his twin, and that his twin died a few weeks after birth," he said.
The US saw its highest daily increase in coronavirus deaths over a 24-hour period today, pushing the total number of fatalities since the outbreak began to just shy of 40,000.
A further 2,674 people have died in the past day, according to data compiled by the Covid Tracking Project on Tuesday.
The total number of deaths in the country is now 39,995.
New York, the hardest-hit state, reported 481 new deaths over the past 24 hours, taking its total to 14,828.
