Human Interest Real People Taylor Swift Urges Fans to 'Isolate' Amid Coronavirus Outbreak: 'We Need to Make Social Sacrifices' "I love you guys so much and need to express my concern that things aren't being taken seriously enough right now," the singer wrote on social media By Melody Chiu Melody Chiu Melody Chiu is an Executive Editorial Director at PEOPLE overseeing Entertainment, Books and Events. With the brand since 2009, she has written cover stories on Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, John Legend, Sandra Oh, House of Horrors survivor Jordan Turpin and more. Chiu oversees all of PEOPLE's entertainment verticals, as well as events strategy and live red carpet coverage for awards season. She graduated from the University of Southern California and has appeared on Today, The Talk, Good Morning America and more. People Editorial Guidelines Published on March 16, 2020 12:25PM EDT As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from CDC, WHO, and local public health departments and visit our coronavirus hub. Taylor Swift is imploring her fans to practice social distancing amid escalating concerns about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). On Sunday, the Grammy winner, 30, posted a note to her Instagram Stories, urging followers to adhere to recommendations by the CDC. “I follow you online and I love you guys so much and need to express my concern that things aren’t being taken seriously enough right now. I’m seeing lots of get togethers and hangs and parties still happening,” wrote Swift. “This is the time to cancel plans, actually truly isolate as much as you can, and don’t assume that because you don’t feel sick that you aren’t possibly passing something on to someone elderly or vulnerable to this. It’s a really scary time but we need to make social sacrifices right now.” Taylor Swift/Instagram Swift’s sole concert in the U.S. outside of her Lover Fest tour dates was canceled last week amid the outbreak of coronavirus. Capital One JamFest had been set to take place on the final day of March Madness Music Festival, a three-day free music series originally scheduled to kick off on April 3 at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. Halsey and Tayla Parx were previously announced as part of the lineup with Swift headlining the show. How Event Cancellations and Social Distancing Can Reduce Expected Coronavirus Deaths in the U.S. Emma McIntyre/Getty In a strategy that epidemiologists call “flattening the curve,” many states have banned gatherings of more than 100 people, closed schools, enforced quarantines and urged people to limit social activities in order to slow the spread of the virus. “The ideal goal in fighting an epidemic or pandemic is to completely halt the spread. But merely slowing it — mitigation — is critical,” Dr. Drew Harris, a population health analyst at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, recently told the New York Times. “This reduces the number of cases that are active at any given time, which in turn gives doctors, hospitals, police, schools and vaccine-manufacturers time to prepare and respond, without becoming overwhelmed.” U.S. Cases of Coronavirus Near 4,000: Here’s an Updated Map of the Spread There are now at least 3,602 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, and 66 people in the U.S. have died from coronavirus-related illness. Worldwide, there are now 173,293 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 6,649 deaths. The first cases of a mysterious respiratory illness — what is now known as COVID-2019, a form of coronavirus — began in Wuhan, China in late December. Since then, the virus has spread worldwide, leading the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency, the first since the zika epidemic in 2016.