Hollywood couple Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were released from an Australian hospital on Tuesday, five days after he and his wife were diagnosed with the new coronavirus, their son Chet Hanks said in a video message via Instagram.
Queensland state's health department would not comment on media reports that the 63-year-old celebrities had been discharged from the Gold Coast University Hospital to self-isolate in a rented house.
Hanks’ management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The couple arrived in Australia in late January on the Gold Coast, where an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann was to be shot. Hanks plays Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The film, slated for release in October 2021, has suspended production, Warner Bros. said.
Chet said both his parents, 63, had been released from hospital and were feeling a lot better.
“They're out of the hospital. They're still self-quarantined, obviously, but they're feeling a lot better. So that's a relief.”
Chet said it is important to stay calm as panic makes things “more difficult than they need to be”.
Wilson, a singer-songwriter, has performed in Brisbane and Sydney during the couple's stay in Australia.
However, they’re not the only A-listers to have contracted the virus.
Idris Elba says he has tested positive for the coronavirus Idris Elba's official Twitter account
Bug bites Idris
British actor Idris Elba announced on Monday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. The actor tweeted that he has no symptoms so far and has been isolated since Friday when he found out about his possible exposure. He says he sought out the test after discovering he had come into contact with someone who had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus.
Elba in a video message said that his wife has not been tested yet but is feeling OK.
“This is serious. Now's really the time to think about social distancing, washing your hands,” Elba said.
“We live in a divided world right now. We can all feel it,” he added. “But now's the time for solidarity, for thinking about each other.”
Elba is the latest high profile celebrity to have tested positive for the virus.
Last week, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson said they had also tested positively in Australia.
TV journalist who met Rita Wilson tests positive
Australian television and radio presenter Richard Wilkins has revealed that he tested positive to the virus on Sunday. He had met Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson at the Sydney Opera House on March 7, and again at Nine Network’s Sydney studio two days later.
Two Nine hosts who interviewed Wilson on live television on March 9, David Campbell and Belinda Russell, returned to work on Tuesday after testing negative. They had been in home isolation since Wilson’s diagnosis.
Authorities said last week that several contacts Hanks and Wilson had in Australia were being traced, but no other results of those efforts have been made public.
The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough for most people. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. People with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may need six weeks to recover.
Wilkins’ son Christian Wilkins was also tested because he spent the night of March 10 in his father’s Sydney home. The 25-year-old son is competing in the Australian version of the reality TV show “Dancing With the Stars,” which is being broadcast without a studio audience because of the COVID-19 risk.
