Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., announced the death of her 67-year-old father on Monday due to complications from COVID-19.
“It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father, Nur Omar Mohamed. No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him,” she posted on Twitter.
The Washington Post reported that when Omar and her family arrived in the U.S., they lived for about a year in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. She recalled being bullied in middle school there. She remembered her father telling her, “They are doing this to you because they feel threatened in some way by your existence.”
The family eventually moved to Minneapolis’s Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
The coronavirus has claimed 116, 125 lives in the U.S. as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. The virus is considered to be especially dangerous to the elderly community and those with compromised immune systems.
On June 14, Omar took to Twitter to warn about the virus risk.
“The pandemic is not over,” she wrote. “Stay vigilant. When protesting or volunteering, keep at least six-foot distance from others when possible, wear a mask, wash or sanitize your hands, and consider getting tested for #COVID19. And do not go if you have symptoms!”