March 6 coronavirus news

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious diseases epidemiologist with the World Health Organization, has weighed in to offer advice to the public at CNN's coronavirus town hall.

"I want to emphasize for our viewers, we can look to doctors and government officials, but it is each of us, individuals all around the world, who are literally the front lines of this," she added. "It's washing your hands, not just for yourself, it's for your fellow family members and fell low citizens. Each of us have a responsibility in this."

What she said people should be doing:

The government of the South Korean city of Daegu has rejected a $10.1 million donation from the Shincheonji religious group at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in the East Asian country.

Pressure has been growing on the group amid claims -- which it denies -- that Shincheonji has not been fully cooperating with officials and concealing the names of followers who might have been exposed to the coronavirus.

According to the Daegu government, there are numerous followers who tested positive for the virus but have refused to be admitted to community treatment centers. Officials also accused others of hampering quarantine measures.

Joining us at the town hall is Dr. Mark Rupp, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).

UNMC is currently running a clinical trial of an experimental coronavirus treatment, and have a second participant enrolled in the trial. The trial is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"We're very pleased with the fact that we brought this trial on extremely quickly along with our colleagues at the NIH," said Rupp.

He urged the public not to panic: "I do agree we need to take a collective deep breath and realize this is not some existential threat against mankind. A quarter to a third of us are not going to die in the next year, like in Europe in the Middle Ages," Rupp said.

But we should still be cautious: "This is a very serious event and one that we need to take seriously and prepare for and do everything we can to blunt the spread of this pandemic," he added, warning that a worst case scenario could lead to "Millions of potential infections, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths."

A Nebraska man who traveled on a cruise ship that was overcome with coronavirus explained what it felt like to contract the virus tonight during CNN's town hall.

Carl Goldman contracted the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship. One of the first signs of the illness was a high fever, Goldman said.

When Goldman went to a doctor aboard the ship, the doctor told the Omaha native that he had to be placed in a quarantine area.

"He tested me and saw that I did have the fever. Was put in a quarantine area. Flown here to Omaha, and put in the biocontainment center where I was, again, tested for the actual virus. And it came out positive. But it felt less than a common cold. I didn't have a stuffy nose. Didn't have a sore throat. The fever was high, but no body aches, no chills, no sweating that usually comes with 103 fever," Goldman said.

More on the Diamond Princess: The American-owned cruise ship was put under quarantine by Japanese for two weeks in February after a coronavirus outbreak was detected on board.

At least 705 people contracted the virus during the quarantine, four of whom have died. For a time, the ship had the largest concentration of cases outside of mainland China, where the virus is thought to have originated.

Watch:

Health officials in California are investigating the death of a 72-year-old Bay Area man who was previously on a cruise ship with two passengers suspected of having the coronavirus.

The man, who has not been identified, died Thursday after officers were called to his home, where they found him "unconscious and not breathing" and were unable to resuscitate.

While obtaining medical history on the patient, a family member advised officers that the man had recently been aboard a cruise ship with two passengers suspected of having the novel coronavirus, said Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety Chief Phan S. Ngo

Ngo was not able to confirm which cruise ship the patient was on and said they have not yet determined if the patient had coronavirus.

Autopsy results are pending and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department is investigating the case.

Seven public safety officers who responded to the call were placed into a brief quarantine "out of an abundance of caution," Ngo said. They have since been sent home, but have not been tested as they are not showing symptoms of the virus.

Sunnyvale is in Northern California’s Santa Clara County, which currently has 20 confirmed cases.

CNN's town hall on the coronavirus, addressing facts, fears, and medical guidance, is about halfway through -- it will run until midnight ET.

We're covering the town hall here with live updates -- but you can also send in questions and stream it live.

How do I participate?

The experts will take questions from the studio audience and from viewers around the world. Submit them here or tweet them using the hashtag #CNNTownHall.

Where can I watch it?

The town hall will air exclusively on CNN, CNN International, across mobile devices via CNN's apps for iOS and Android, via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV, SiriusXM Channels 116, 454, 795 and the Westwood One Radio Network.

CNN's town hall is now turning to the question of what an epidemic would look like in the United States.

A moderate scenario might be a million hospitalizations — meaning 200,000 people would need to be in the intensive care unit, and 64,000 people would need breathing machines, said CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

The question: "We don't have all that. We have maybe just barely that. And many of those ventilators and breathing machines are currently being used. What are we going to do if that many people actually need care like that?" Gupta said.

The answer: "It's one area where the response has been laggard," responded Ron Klein, President Barack Obama's Ebola response coordinator.

"Getting our health care system ready for the influx of cases is something we should be doing now. We saw in China they built temporary hospitals. They really flexed up their capacity," he said.

Klein went on to make this crucial point:

Watch:

CNN Correspondent Will Ripley is joining the town hall to bring us the latest on the situation in Japan -- where a debate is ongoing on the future of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"This has not been a great week for organizers of Tokyo 2020 and the International Olympic Committee because Japan saw the case numbers rise over 1,000," said Ripley. "You have infectious diseases experts saying that the number could be 10 times the official report because of the fact this country's testing so few people."

Will the Games be canceled? Not yet -- despite calls to do so.

The question of a pandemic: "The big concern is if this outbreak continues to intensify, if it becomes a pandemic by summer, will they be able to hold the Games? Right now, there isn't an answer to that question."

Watch:

The northeastern US state of Maryland has joined California and Washington in declaring an emergency over the coronavirus, after the first cases were confirmed there Thursday.

Three positive cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Montgomery County on Thursday. The county is Maryland's most populous, and borders Washington, DC. The patients, who contracted the virus while traveling overseas, are in good condition and are in quarantine at their homes, the state government said.