Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love reminded everyone to practice compassion and empathy during the coronavirus emergency, which has sparked fear and tension across the globe.

COVID-19 has claimed almost 8,000 lives from more than 198,000 global cases, with China and Italy the hardest hit.

Sport has been disrupted amid the pandemic – the NBA among a number of professional leagues on hiatus after the likes of Kevin Durant, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell contracted coronavirus.

Love, who donated $100,000 to the Cavaliers arena and support staff following the NBA suspension, shared a message as the world fights against the virus.

"I know we're going through some tough times right now," the 2016 champion and five-time All-Star said in a video shared by the NBA. "People are having to navigate stress, anxiety, the unknown… this is every day. Every day is presenting a new challenge and not knowing what the future holds is tough.

"When you see people fall on hardships or going through hardships, it's normal to feel this way. Now more than ever, we have to practice compassion. We have to be mindful of our actions, really practice a sense of community. That's really the biggest thing. We've seen the NBA community step up and we've seen people step up through all sports and beyond. It's great to see it and we need more of it.

"People want to feel part of something bigger as well as on the winning side of history. Human beings are resilient, we will get through this but in the meantime, we need to practice empathy, compassion.  Just know that our actions speak volumes in this time. There's a lot of people going through it and have it worse than we do.

"While most of us are having to socially distance, don't socially isolate. There's so many ways to reach out… nothing unites us like the same enemy. It's very powerful what we're able to do when we put our minds to it. Continue to pay it forward in any way that you can.

"Be mindful of people's physical but also their emotional health through this super anxiety-ridden and stressful time because we don't know what the future holds. We don't know what the next day holds but all we can hope for is we're going to do this together and come out on top."