Tom Hanks, Wife Rita Wilson and NBA Player Test Positive for Coronavirus

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson (Credit: Shutterstock)

Tom Hanks and his actress wife Rita Wilson have tested positive for the coronavirus.

In a statement posted to Instagram Wednesday, Hanks said he and Wilson were traveling in Australia when they started to feel sick.

“We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too,” he wrote. “To play things right, as is needed in the world right now, we were tested for the Coronavirus, and were found to be positive.”

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Hanks and Wilson, both 63, are the first celebrities to go public with a diagnosis.

The Oscar-winning actor is in Australia working on an upcoming film about Elvis Presley. Hanks is set to play Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, in the untitled project.

Hanks said he and Wilson are taking a “one-day-at-a-time approach” and will “keep the world posted and updated.”

Hanks revealed his diagnosis just as President Donald Trump held a nationally-televised news conference and announced a 30-day suspension on travel from Europe to the United States, as well as a set of measures to ease possible economic fallout due to COVID-19.

Also Wednesday, the NBA suspended its season “until further notice” after a Utah Jazz player tested positive.

“The NBA is suspending game play following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice,” the league said in a statement. “The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic.”

ESPN identified the infected player as the Jazz’s Rudy Gobert.

Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization officially declared the outbreak a global pandemic and urged world leaders to take “aggressive action.”

“All countries can still change the course of this pandemic. If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace and mobilize their people in the response,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

As of Wednesday evening, 38 people had died from coronavirus in the U.S.