When it comes to celebrities who tested positive for the coronavirus, no name was as prominent than that of Tom Hanks. He and his wife Rita Wilson were one fo the first celebrities to test positive for the disease, and now he has shared more details about his experience.
Variety reports that the A-lister talked about his experience with “The National Defense Radio Show.” In the interview, Hanks said that he and his wife had different reactions to the coronavirus. He says Wilson experienced nausea so severe she was crawling on the floor. Hanks, on the other hand, found himself exhausted less than 15 minutes into a 30-minute workout. He shared that he could not even make it through basic stretches and exercises.
Wilson corroborated all of this in her own telling of her coronavirus experience. According to her, she would get fevers as his as 102 degrees Fahrenheit or 38 degrees Celsius. Her body aches were so bad that she could not stand even being touched. She also says that she lost her sense of taste and smell, which Hanks remarked on in his own interview, saying Wilson could not enjoy food for the three weeks they were in quarantine in Australia.
Entertainment Weekly notes that Hanks was in Australia filming an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann, playing the role of Presley’s longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker. This was why the couple found themselves quarantined in Australia for most of March before returning to the United States after recovering.
Over the past few weeks, more and more personalities from the entertainment and media industry have come out as positive for the coronavirus. News anchors Chris Cuomo and George Stephanopoulos, television host Andy Cohen, reality star Todd Chrisley, singer Marianne Faithfull, and actors Ali Wentworth, Olga Kurylenko, Kristofer Hivju, and Idris Elba.
The coronavirus has also caused the deaths of celebrities such as British comedians Eddie Large and Tim Brooke-Taylor, singer-songwriter John Prine, actor and dialect coach Andrew Jack, stage star Mark Blum, and celebrity chef Floyd Cardoz.
Experiences like that of Hanks might soon become the norm as confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue to rise around the world. According to the Apr. 20 situation report from the World Health Organization, there are now 2,314,621 people who have tested positive for COVID-19. Deaths from the disease are now at 157,847 people.
In the United States, the Apr. 20 update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 746,625 people. The number of fatalities is now at 39,083 people.