'It hurts to breathe': Nurse describes having coronavirus from her hospital bed

'I just want to tell you don't take this as a joke'

The nurse in her hospital bed (Shareka Williams (Facebook))

A nurse in a Tennessee care home has posted a video from her hospital bed after contracting Covid-19, warning people that the virus is no joke.

Shareka Williams works at the Gallatin Center for Rehabilitation and Healing in Nashville, where more than 100 staff and residents have tested positive for coronavirus.

Sitting in her hospital bed and wearing a facemask, Ms Williams posted a video to Facebook urging people to take the outbreak seriously.

“Excuse me, it hurts to breathe,” she says. “I just want to tell you, don’t take this as a joke. This is not a joke.”

"You can’t see your family, you can barely talk, trying to do everything you can to stay sane,” Ms Williams added.

Fox 17 News revealed that four people who contracted the virus at the centre have died.

Some of the residents were transferred to the Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin for treatment and staff at the centre posted on their Facebook page, outlining their admiration for the medical staff who are treating them.

“How do you rehome more than 90 sick residents of a nursing home to a single hospital over the course of one weekend? It takes an amazing leadership team, fantastic community partners in EMS, EMA, fire, police, local business donations; and THE VERY BEST employees, across every department, working selflessly for hours on end,” the post read.

“Not all heroes wear capes, but they definitely wear masks.”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, upwards of 236,339 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached at least 5,648.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended a two-week ban on gatherings of more than 50 people as part of the battle to contain the spread of the contagion.