Tom Hanks and Wife Rita Wilson Test Positive for Coronavirus

Gabrielle Chung
·3 min read

Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The actor, 63, confirmed the positive results on his Instagram Wednesday.

“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,” Hanks wrote.

“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?”

He added, “We’ll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves!”

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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! Hanx!

A post shared by Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) on Mar 11, 2020 at 6:08pm PDT

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Hanks is currently in Australia’s Gold Coast for the pre-production of Baz Luhrmann‘s untitled Elvis Presley biopic, in which he plays the music icon’s longtime manager Colonel Tom Parker. Filming for the movie has been halted.

“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 (coronavirus),” Warner Bros. said in a statement to PEOPLE. “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 individual who tested positive for COVID-19 is currently receiving treatment.”

Wilson, 63, performed at the Emporium Hotel South Bank in South Brisbane on Thursday and the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday. She also recently appeared on Australia’s Today show.

Amy Sussman/WWD/Shutterstock Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks

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Worldwide, there are now 121,545 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 4,373 deaths.

The first cases of a mysterious respiratory illness — what is now known as COVID-2019, a form of coronavirus — began in Wuhan, China in late December. Since then, the virus has spread worldwide, leading the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency, the first since the zika epidemic in 2016.

At first, this coronavirus was contained to China, but Wuhan is a major transportation hub with hundreds of flights leaving and landing from the city of 11 million each day. Soon, as people flew from the area to different countries, the coronavirus reached more countries, including the United States.

The first U.S. case was found in Everett, Washington, just outside of Seattle, in a man who had recently returned from Wuhan. The number of cases grew slowly from there, with a total of just 14 over the course of about a month, but as February came to an end, the virus began to spread more rapidly in communities across the U.S.