Coronavirus is a threat to young people too, US official Anthony Fauci tells Stephen Curry in Instagram Q&A.

Some young and healthy people in the USA who have contracted the new coronavirus are becoming seriously ill, the top US official on infectious diseases, Anthony Fauci, told NBA star Stephen Curry in an interview on Thursday.

Thank you to everyone who tuned in earlier today on Instagram Live! I wanted to make sure everyone had access to the conversation on COVID-19 with Dr. Fauci. Please share as much as possible. Thank you! #SCASKSFAUCI https://t.co/CtLGPy6Neg — Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) March 26, 2020

Warriors star Curry teamed up with Dr Fauci for a question-and-answer discussion about the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday. Curry hosted the chat on his Instagram account. Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and part of the White House coronavirus task force.

Many falsely believe the virus, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the United States, 578 people in the UK and more than 24,000 people worldwide, is only a threat to the elderly and those with underlying health conditions, Fauci told the basketball player in the interview.

"While it is true that the elderly and those suffering from conditions like lung disease and diabetes have a far greater risk of dying, some young people who have contracted it have also become very sick," he said.

"What we are starting to see is that there are some people who are younger, people your age - young, healthy, vigorous - who don't have any underlying conditions who are getting seriously ill," Fauci said.

Image: Dr Stanley Fauci addresses the media at a White House press briefing

"It's still a very, very small minority, but it doesn't mean that young people like yourself should say, 'I'm completely exempt from any risk of getting seriously ill','" Fauci told the 32-year-old Golden State Warriors guard.

He stressed that young people need to adhere to social distancing and other steps designed to slow the spread of the virus both to protect themselves and to prevent other, more vulnerable people from contracting it.

"You need to protect yourself because you are not completely exempt from serious illness," he said.

"And you can become the vector, or the carrier of infection, where you get infected, you feel well and then you inadvertently and innocently pass it on to your grandfather, your grandmother or an uncle who is on chemotherapy for cancer."

"That's what we've got to be careful of."

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Thursday said that 38 per cent of US coronavirus patients sick enough to be hospitalised were between the ages of 20 and 54.

The pandemic has upended everyday life in much of the United States and brought professional sports leagues, including the NBA, to a halt.

Asked when leagues may be able to return to action, Fauci said it will depend on how quickly the United States can slow the rate of infection.

"What you need to see is the trajectory of the curve start to come down" as health officials are seeing now in China and South Korea, but not in hard-hit Italy," he said.

"We can start thinking about getting back to some degree of normality when the country as a whole has turned that corner."

Want to watch even more of the NBA but don't have Sky Sports? Get the Sky Sports Action and Arena pack, click here.