At least 18 members of a North Texas family have tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after a "nephew" had unknowingly spread the virus at a surprise birthday party on May 30.

The man hosted the gathering of 25 people, which only lasted for a few hours and even followed the state's latest health standards. He played golf with the family beforehand and thought a slight cough was just a result of working in a construction.

Ron Barbosa, the man's uncle and a volunteer EMT, didn't attend the party because of safety concerns. However, the party for his daughter-in-law, who turned 30, still pushed through.

He told Associated Press that his nephew interacted with seven relatives during the party, and the other guests later on spread the virus to 10 other members of the family, including four elderly, a cancer patient, and two children.

"It was only a couple of hours," Barbosa told Fox News, "But during that brief time, somehow the other 18 family members are now infected."

Barbosa said he's keeping track of everyone who tested positive - three of whom are still in the hospital - his 80-year-old parents and his sister with breast cancer.

Carole, Barbosa's mother, only stopped by at the party to drop something off, but tested positive for COVID-19 on June 6 and was admitted to the hospital on June 13. Frank, his father, didn't attend the gathering, but later contracted the virus and was brought to the hospital on June 17.

While his sister is recovering and feeling better, his father is still in an intensive care unit, on life support, and close to needing a ventilator.

"They're saying this is one of the last straws for my dad," Barbosa told WFAA-TV. 

 "We knew this was going to happen, I mean, this whole time this has been going on we've been terrified," he added.

As of yesterday, according to Barbosa's Facebook page, Frank has received a plasma donation from a recovered COVID-19 patient.

"When it kicked up a notch to where we thought we were going to lose him and they couldn't find it (plasma), he rallied, and we said we're going to find it," Frank and Carole's other child Ani Stone told NBC.

The couple is expected to celebrate their 68th wedding anniversary and the family is hoping that they can both pull through with the fight of their lives.

The family said Carole has returned home to recover. "That's all we want is for them to just be home," Stone said.

COVID-19 cases surged in new areas in the U.S., particularly in the Southeast and Western states. Texas itself has over 180,000 total cases, with 2,207 deaths. The number of COVID-19 cases has more than doubled in two weeks.

Governor Greg Abbott announced that to prevent the spread of the disease, Texas will halt its planned reopening, while allowing some activity under specific health guidelines and safety practices for "Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families."

"The last thing we want to do as a state is [to] go backwards," Abbott noted.