A lot of people have been exposed.

keep comparing it to from the Stand by Steven King.

Update, There are currently 2,493 confirmed cases worldwide, including 80 fatalities.

Young healthy people here shouldn't have much to worry about, and all the infected that died seem to be elderly or with other medical problems. Typical for any pneumonia caused illness.

that is not turning out to be true as the disease progresses. Deaths have not been limited to elderly or those with other medical problems.

(And they are up to 2,794 confirmed cases)

A 36-Year-Old Man Is the Youngest Fatality of the Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak So Far

Official data suggested that most of the previous victims were between the ages of 65 and 80. Previously a 48-year-old woman with diabetes was the youngest reported fatality. The oldest were two 88-year-old men

“This 36-year old is an enigma,” said David Heymann, a professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene.

“We know that the majority of people who seem to have died to date have co-morbidity and they are elderly.”

https://time.com/5770924/wuhan-coronavirus-youngest-death/

Who knows how many s/he infected before symptoms showed?
Potentially, hundreds.

If the Chinese are right and this has a 2 week incubation period during which the person feels fine but is contagious, we'll start hearing our case numbers jumping as fast as the Chinese numbers.

They're up to 3000 sick, 80 deaths per the BBC. Numbers look like they're nearly doubling every day.

I've seen transmission period estimates from 2-14 days.