As coronavirus continues to spread (COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic earlier today), we have word on the first celebrities to go public with a diagnosis.
Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks
(Big, Road To Perdition, Saving Private Ryan) has taken to social media to announce that he and his wife Rita Wilson have contracted the virus.
The couple began to exhibit symptoms while in Australia where Hanks is filming the
Elvis biopic, and sought medical attention. Unfortunately, they both tested positive for COVID-19.
“Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia. We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too. To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.
Well, now. What to do next? The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks’ will be tested observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires. Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no?
We’ll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves!”
This is all very surreal, but things are probably going to get a whole lot worse before they get better.
Shortly after Hanks shared his news, The NBA announced that the rest of the season is to be suspended after a Utah Jazz player also tested positive (more details
here), and Donald Trump has now announced a 30-day suspension on travel from Europe to the United States.
There have been more than 115,000 cases of coronavirus confirmed worldwide, and the disease has killed more than 4,200 people.