In emotional video, NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns says his mother is in a coma because of COVID-19: 'Please protect your families'

Minnesota Timberwolves player Karl-Anthony Towns took to Instagram to warn the public of the very real dangers of COVID-19.

Towns also announced that his mother, Jacqueline Cruz, is in a coma after reportedly contracting coronavirus.

At the time of this writing, 55,243 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the U.S., and at least 802 people have died because of the disease.

The world total stands at 438,739 confirmed cases and 19,675 deaths.

What are the details?

The basketball player said that his mother and father both came down with symptoms last week. The two reportedly saw no improvement over a period of days, and decided to go to their local hospital for treatment.

Though Towns' father was released to home quarantine, his mother wasn't so lucky. She was admitted to the hospital for treatment, but reportedly didn't respond to any of the medications.

"She just wasn't getting better," Towns said. "Her fever was never cutting from 103, maybe go down to 101.9 with the meds, and then immediately spike back up during the night. She was very uncomfortable. Her lungs were getting worse, her cough was getting worse. She was deteriorating. She was deteriorating — and we always felt that the next medicine would help. This is the one that's going to get it done. This mixture is going to get it done."

Towns said his mother's condition temporarily improved, but she took a turn for the worse — that's when doctors put her on a ventilator and into a medically-induced coma.

Not giving up hope

Though his mother's fate is uncertain, Towns and the rest of his family is not giving up hope.

"I talked to her when she went there and told her I loved her," he said. "Every day I always told her how much I love her."

He continued, "She's been in a medically induced coma. Since that day, I haven't talked to her, haven't been able to obviously communicate with her. I've just been getting updates on her condition. It's rough, and day by day we're just seeing how it goes. We're being positive; I'm being very positive. So I'm just keeping the strength up for everybody and my family.

"This disease is real," he warned. "This disease needs not to be taken lightly. Please protect your families, your loved ones, your friends, yourself."

He added, "We're going to keep fighting on my side. We're going to win. My mother is the strongest woman I know, and I know she will beat this. And we will rejoice when she does."