Hollywood star Tom Hanks, wife in Gold Coast hospital with coronavirus
Hollywood star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson are in hospital on the Gold Coast after contracting the coronavirus.
The actor issued a statement today saying they had felt run down and had gone to the hospital for testing.
“We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches,” the statement read.
“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.”
Hanks is in Australia filming a Baz Lurhmann biopic on Elvis Presley on the Gold Coast. The set has been shut down as a precaution.
The Hollywood couple are among 27 cases of COVID-19 so far in Queensland. All of those, including Hanks and Wilson, are believed to have contracted the coronavirus overseas, however contact tracing will be undertaking to determine whether anyone else may have been infected.
Last week, singer-songwriter Wilson performed at the ballroom of the Emporium Hotel South Bank in Brisbane. Their son Truman was in the audience.
Hanks and Wilson are in good hands at the Gold Coast University Hospital, one of the state’s most modern health facilities. Staff there dealt with Queensland’s first cases of COVID-19, in a tour group from Wuhan, and also two of the most recent, a man and woman whose diagnoses were confirmed on Wednesday.
Local infectious diseases specialist John Gerrard also had experience dealing with the coronavirus response in Japan, particularly the Diamond Princess cruise ship, while one of the Gold Coast isolation wards was expertly designed after the 2003 SARS epidemic.
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Hanks said in his statement they would remain in isolation “for as long as public health and safety requires”.
“Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time-approach, no?”
The couple’s son, Chet Hanks, took to social media to say “they both are fine, they’re not even that sick”.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Prime Minister Scott Morrison were among tens of thousands of people to publicly wish Hanks and Wilson a speedy recovery.
– AAP
