BY ABBEY WHITE | HollywoodReporter.Com

Troy Warren for CNT

“We need to trust science and follow the recommendations and be very responsible with the way we handle information in times of fear and uncertainty,” the ‘Jungle Cruise’ star said.

Édgar Ramírez has revealed the personal toll COVID-19 is having on his family while encouraging people to “follow the recommendations” as the pandemic continues.

While promoting the release of his new movie Jungle Cruise, the actor stressed to the Associated Press that many people are still being impacted daily by COVID-19, including his own family.

“Many families … continue to be affected, including mine in a terrible way,” he said. “At this very moment that I am talking to you, I have family members dying of COVID, so it is very important that we remain alert and attentive to this disease because it has not ended.”

The Jungle Cruise star went on to emphasize that vaccines have historically “defeated” other pandemic-related diseases. He also challenged people to be more careful in light of misinformation that is being spread about the coronavirus and its various vaccines.

“Remember that our grandparents and our parents defeated polio and smallpox with vaccines and that it is very important to be very careful because in times of fear there is a lot of misinformation,” the actor said.

In the U.S., vaccines have been available for months, but the CDC reports that just a little more than 162 million Americans are fully vaccinated. Only 48.8 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated, while another 56.4 percent have received a single dose of the vaccine.

A recent rise in positive cases attributed, in part, to the rapid spread of the delta variant has led to the return of mask mandates in some parts of the country, including L.A., with Hollywood taking its own precautions both off and on set.

“We need to trust science and follow the recommendations and be very responsible with the way we handle information in times of fear and uncertainty,” Ramírez concluded.

While the actor did not initially specify to the Associated Press which of his family members had died from COVID, in a new interview with Entertainment Tonight published Monday, July 26, he confirmed that at least one of those family deaths was his grandmother, who passed just days before the Jungle Cruise premiere.

“I brought my entire family, my mom is here, my dad is here,” Ramírez said of the family who accompanied him to the Disneyland event. “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.”

Reaffirming previous comments from the carpet, Ramirez expressed that “A lot of people made a huge effort for us to be here in a safe way. But we’re not there 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 said.