LOS ANGELES: Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, have both tested positive for 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 couple are the first major U.S. celebrities known to have contracted COVID-19. The coronavirus has infected more than 1,000 people in the United States.
“Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no? We’ll keep the world posted and updated,” Hanks tweeted.
Hanks had traveled to Australia to begin filming an upcoming movie about Elvis Presley. He is set to play Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom 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.
“The health and safety of our company members is always our top priority, and we are taking precautions to protect everyone who works on our productions around the world,” the studio said.
The Warner Bros statement did not mention Hanks.
It was not immediately clear if filming on the project would be postponed due to the actor’s illness.
Hanks won 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. Wilson has appeared in such films as 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 United States at least 37 people have died from the respiratory illness.
