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Unprecedented times call for unprecedented reporting. That’s why NBC is partnering with Facebook for NBC News Special Report: Coronavirus Pandemic, a live primetime special anchored by Nightly News host Lester Holt. The coverage will air Thursday night at 10 p.m. ET across NBC, MSNBC, the streaming service NBC News NOW and Telemundo Digital.

“Unlike specials I’ve done in my career, this one is still being written, because the story is still being written almost by the hour,” Holt told ESSENCE by phone on Wednesday. “It’s moving so quickly. So it’ll be kind of a real-time reflection of where we are at that moment and trying to address these issues and questions.”

In a press release for the special, the network explained that a team of correspondents will provide crucial real-time information around what viewers need to know about COVID-19. The one-hour broadcast will also include expert analysis and health advice from NBC’s Coronavirus Crisis Team, including NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Dr. John Torres and top virologist and NBC News and MSNBC medical contributor Dr. Joseph Fair.

Holt shared that the project came together organically with experts and correspondents looking at the many angles of the coronavirus story. In preparation for the event, the veteran journalist really honed in on some of the very new and unprecedented ways that the country is attempting to “flatten the curve” of the now-global pandemic. The Dateline NBC host was specifically eager to learn more about sheltering in place, a tactic that was recently implemented by officials in the Bay Area, Boston, and Colorado.

Community Health of South Florida, Inc. (CHI) begins drive through testing for COVID-19 at its Doris Ison Health Center on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 in Miami. (Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“We’re not officially doing that here in New York, but I look outside my window as I talk to you and I can literally count five people in Rockefeller Plaza,” says Holt. “So I think the basic questions are, ‘How do we stop this transmission? Are we doing the right things? Do we need to be doing more?’ We’re all kind of walking around with this sense of, ‘How do we survive this?’ And that’s a pretty basic but really heavy, weighty question. And we’re leaning on folks to give us the best answers they can, knowing that there’s no 100 percent answer in this sort of thing.’”

In recent days, a number of news anchors, TV hosts, and non-essential network employees have relegated to performing their typical day jobs from home. Outside of the potential dangers that commuting can pose to oneself, more companies are assessing the risks that traveling, particularly in large cities, can pose to a large swath of their workforce. Known as the “silent enemy” by some, the coronavirus is infecting people who become

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