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Coronavirus: Tom Hanks, Wife Rita Wilson Test Positive in Australia

Coronavirus: Tom Hanks, Wife Rita Wilson Test Positive in Australia

Los Angeles: Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, have both tested positive for the new coronavirus in Australia, the actor said on Twitter.

Hanks said that he and Wilson, who are both 63, were tested in Australia, where he is working on a film after they felt tired and achy with slight fevers.

“To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the coronavirus and were found to be positive,” Hanks said in the tweet.

The film star said that he and Wilson would be “tested, observed and isolated” for as long as required.

The two are the first major US celebrities known to have contracted COVID-19. The coronavirus has infected more than 1,000 people in the US.

“Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no? We’ll keep the world posted and updated,” Hanks concluded his statement.

He had traveled to Australia to film an upcoming movie about Elvis Presley. He is set to play Presley’s manager Thomas Andrew Parker in the Warner Bros. production.

“We have been made aware that a company member from our Elvis feature film, which is currently in pre-production in The Gold Coast, Australia, has tested positive for COVID-19,” Warner Bros. said in a statement without naming the person.

“We are working closely with the appropriate Australian health agencies to identify and contact anyone who may have come in direct contact with the individual.

Also read: India’s Hospitals Have an Infection Problem. Could Accreditation Be the Way to Go?

“The health and safety of our company members are always our top priority, and we are taking precautions to protect everyone who works on our productions around the world,” the studio said.

It was not immediately clear if filming on the project would be postponed due to the actor’s illness.

The couple’s son Chet took to Instagram to say he had spoken with his parents on the phone and that both were fine and there was no cause for major concern.

“Yeah, it’s true, my parents got coronavirus. Crazy,” he said in a video message. “They’re not even that sick. They’re not worried about it, they’re not trippin but they’re going through the necessary health precautions obviously.”

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Hanks won the best actor Academy Awards for his role in 1994′s Philadelphia, in which he plays a man stricken with AIDS, and Forrest Gump the following year. Acclaimed films that Wilson has appeared in include Sleepless in Seattle and Runaway Bride.

The coronavirus has infected more than 121,000 people in 118 countries while over 4,300 people have died due to the virus, according to a Reuters tally. In the US alone, at least 37 people have died from respiratory illness.

(Reuters)

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