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Actor Tom Hanks in hospital with coronavirus

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at the Oscars in February. They are in hospital in Australia with COVID-19.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson at the Oscars in February. They are in hospital in Australia with COVID-19. Photo: Getty

Hollywood star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson are in an Australian hospital after contracting coronavirus.

The actor issued a statement on Thursday saying he and Wilson had felt run down with fevers and body aches, and so took themselves to hospital for testing.

“We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too,” Hanks wrote on Instagram.

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

The revelation has also forced Channel Nine hosts David Campbell and Belinda Russell into isolation. The pair interviewed Wilson on Monday.

Hanks is in Australia filming a Baz Lurhmann biopic on Elvis Presley on the Gold Coast. He plays Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker, who had a complicated relationship with the star.

He arrived on the Gold Coast in late January, although he returned to the US to attend the Oscars on February 10.

 

Hanks, 63, is a type two diabetic. He and Wilson are reportedly in hospital on the Gold Coast, where the actor said they would 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 wrote.

Warner Brothers, which will distribute the Elvis film confirmed a case of coronavirus among the crew.

Production has temporarily ceased on the big budget flick, according to a crew member.

Crew were sent home home on Thursday morning – although they were none the wiser that Hanks had contracted coronavirus.

“I turned up to work this early morning and it was all chained up, and we were told to go home because there had been an outbreak of coronavirus,” a crew member, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

“I thought it would be funny if it was Tom Hanks because I rubbed shoulders with him in the catering area, and then found it was. I hope I haven’t got it.”

 

Last Thursday, Wilson – who is a singer-songwriter – performed at the ballroom of the Emporium Hotel South Bank in Brisbane. Their son Truman was in the audience.

She also performed at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday night.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said people who had taken selfies with Hanks in recentdays should not panic about contracting the virus.

A person has to be in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes to be at risk.

“They (Hanks and Wilson) will be getting the best treatment in our hospitals,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Hanks’ coronavirus diagnosis is the second setback for Lurhmann’s big budget Warner Brothers film at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast.

The studios were inundated after a major deluge in January that pushed production back until the first week of March.

-with AAP

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