Quarantined Hanks calls for common sense, Rita Wilson goes ‘stir crazy’
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson during their coronavirus quarantine in Australia in March. Photo: Twitter
Hollywood star Tom Hanks has shared an update on his health, a fortnight after he and his wife, Rita Wilson, were diagnosed with the coronavirus.
But it’s Wilson’s own social media update that has really got everyone talking.
A “quarantine stir crazy” Wilson has shared an impressive cover of Naughty By Nature’s 1992 rap hit Hip Hop Hooray with her nearly one million Instagram followers.
Hanks and singer-songwriter Wilson tested positive to COVID-19 early in March.
He was filming an Elvis biopic with director Baz Luhrmann on the Gold Coast at the time.
Wilson performed concerts at the Sydney Opera House and in Brisbane before her diagnosis. During that time, she also met veteran Nine reporter, Richard Wilkins, who also contracted the virus.
Hanks and Wilson were quarantined at a Gold Coast hospital for several days before being sent home for the rest of their isolation period.
In a social media post on Monday, Hanks said he and Wilson were doing well. But he had some advice for others as the coronavirus pandemic expands across Australia and elsewhere.
“Hey, folks. Two weeks after our first symptoms and we feel better,” he wrote.
“Sheltering in place works like this: You don’t give it to anyone, you don’t get it from anyone. Common sense, no?”
Tweet from @tomhanks
He said recovery was going to take a while but “if we take care of each other, help where we can and give up some comforts, this too shall pass”.
Hanks has been an enthusiastic sharer of information from his quarantine. Last week he caused a stir with a post of his Australian-inspired breakfast, which included toast with an overly generous amount of Vegemite.
Other celebrities have also spoken out in the fight against the virus. In the US, where nearly one in three people has been ordered to stay home to slow the its spread, stars such as Robert De Niro and Danny DeVito have recorded messages of support, urging people to stay home.
Coronavirus cases in the US have topped 42,817 with 579 dead.
New York City, which has 9600 cases and 63 deaths, is the epicentre of the outbreak.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo shared a video of veteran Hollywood actor De Niro urging Americans to stay home:
Tweet from @NYGovCuomo
Hospitals in the US have been scrambling for protective equipment for healthcare workers and for ventilators as they brace for a wave of patients.
Mr Cuomo wants the US government to take over acquisition of medical supplies so American states do not have to compete with each other to get them.
“Time matters, minutes count, and this is literally a matter of life and death,” he said.
Tweet from @jbillinson
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has called the COVID-19 spread the biggest domestic crisis since the Great Depression.
“If we don’t get more ventilators in the next 10 days, people will die who don’t have to die,” he said.
-with AAP
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