Devastated partner of Portsmouth dad now confirmed to have died from Covid-19 gives lockdown warning

Devoted dad, Dom Merrix tragically died in April of a heart attack, at the age of just 48, after suffering from what the family believed was a bout of coronavirus. At the time, the presence of the virus had not been confirmed but in a Facebook post, his partner of 12 years, Sarah Louise Merrix, stated that Covid-19 was now known to be the underlying factor which caused the complications which led to his sudden death.

Sarah stated: ‘Today I received the phone call I’ve been waiting for nine long weeks. This morning I was called and told the official cause of Dom’s death. Some may think that this is personal to me, and I agree it is, but I also feel I need to tell people.

‘Following what happened I was surprised at the amount of comments I read on public posts of people dismissing Dom’s death as he had not been tested for Covid-19.‘Today I have had to officially register the death of Dom. The report states that Dom’s cause of death was acute bleeding in his lungs caused by a lung injury which was primarily caused by Covid-19. I had hoped and prayed that they would find an underlying health condition so that I could justify to myself why this happened - but the truth is that Covid-19 is the only culprit.’

With lockdown eased, and increasing reports of gatherings and people not following lockdown guidelines, Sarah confirmed she wanted The News to publicise her post to warn people about the continued dangers of Covid-19 and the need to follow regulations.

Sarah stated: ‘The reason I wanted to share this is because this isn’t over and I want to reiterate how important it is to follow guidelines. Don’t think this won’t happen to you, don’t put yourselves and your family at risk.

‘As a family we did everything right and it still ruined our lives.’

Hundreds of mourners lined the streets to say a final farewell to the Pompey fan after the community raised £12,000 to cover funeral costs.

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