As part of a 21 News 6:40 special Doctor Apurva Padubidri, a Family Medicine Physician with Steward Medical Group answered viewer's Facebook questions about COVID-19.

What are you seeing on the local level with COVID-19 cases?

"It's really widespread. There are people with really mild symptoms and there are people that obviously need to be hospitalized. We're seeing people with diarrhea and vomiting; people with just conjunctivitis and then most commonly with upper respiratory symptoms; cough, sore throat, congestion, fever, body aches, and headaches as well."

Is there a blood type that is more likely to get COVID-19?

"I'm not sure about that. There have been some preliminary tests about blood types that can get a worse infection than others. But it is really too soon to tell. Something new coming to the area is the donation of blood from people in the area that have previously tested positive because there have been studies about that plasma donation benefiting people with severe infection."

 Is there an antibody test?

There is a test right now, locally there is not anyone doing a lot of that testing. The nasal swab test is to just see if you have the infection. Blood testing will show if a person has antibodies for COVID-19."

If you have the virus once can you get it again?

"That is the hope, that once you have the virus the premise of having those antibodies and producing a vaccine as well is that you could be more immune to getting it again. Repeat infections are still being validated and being looked into to see the factors of what possible reinfection could look like."

When will large events return?

"There are a lot of different projections about how restarting everyday life will go. If everything opened May 1st we would see a big peak in new cases over the summer so it will be a very gradual process in reopening things because we have been doing a good job flattening the curve but I don't think it will be suddenly opening everything back up. I don't see sporting events and concerts happening this summer because those are such a large amount of people and we won't be fully protected until we do have that vaccine to get herd immunity."

What are the best mask liners?

"Doubling up on the fabric inside the liner as well as an actual surgical mask inside a fabric one to protect the mask from getting dirty quickly."