CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - On Tuesday, health experts held a forum to discuss global coronavirus concerns.

This comes after health officials said they examined one person at the McKinley Health Center with symptoms that appeared to be similar to the virus.

"One student we thought may have had the symptoms, but at the end of the day, did not meet CDC criteria to become a person under investigation. That's a higher bar that needs to be reached. The way that bar is reached is frankly a conversation between Carle or McKinley ... the local health department, state department, and CDC. You have to basically discuss the case as a group and the circumstances around the case as a group," said Dr. Robert Parker with the McKinley Health Center.

He says the symptoms that they look for in all people include a cough, fever, flu-like symptoms and an epi-link being Wuhan City.

"They never met the threshold to be hospitalized and managed more aggressively," said Dr. Parker.

He said students are coming in and out of his office telling him they have been in Wuhan.

"Based on the best information I can pull off of our database through McKinley, we had 146 students that had a direct link to Wuhan City," he said. "Yesterday I expanded it just a bit to the Hubei province and it looks like from the information I received last night, we have about 250 students (that would include the 146 from Wuhan)," he said.

He said he plans to reach out to those additional students on Tuesday and Wednesday as well to continue to keep track of cases.

"We don't know who traveled and who didn't travel," he said.

He said as of now, authorities have not conducted any surveys for students.

"I would say if this issue evolves quickly, we may want to do something like that, but we have not polled our students to see who traveled and who didn't travel," he said.

Julie Pryde with the Public Health Administration said right now, the biggest concern is influenza that is spreading around and still needs attention.

"There are A viruses still going around and yet we don't have people vaccinated for that," she said.

Health officials are requesting people to cover their mouths when they cough, wash their hands, wear a face mask and visit their local doctor.

This week, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin joined Patty Murray and 28 of their Democratic Senate colleagues to release the following letter to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Administration, which requested an update on the virus and how Congress can help families stay safe:

“We write to express concern about the rapidly evolving 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), to urge your continued robust and scientifically driven response to the situation, and to assess whether any additional resources or action by Congress are needed at this time. A quick and effective response to the 2019-nCoV requires public health officials around the world work together to share reliable information about the disease and insight into steps taken to prevent, diagnose, and treat it appropriately,” wrote the senators.

The full letter is below and a PDF is HERE. 

As of news time, there are zero reports of the coronavirus in central Illinois.