An Australian TV journalist yesterday said he has COVID-19 and assumes he contracted it while meeting with actress-singer Rita Wilson in Sydney.
Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks, have been isolated in an Australian hospital since they were both diagnosed with COVID-19 on Thursday.
Authorities last week said that several contacts Hanks and Wilson had in Australia were being traced, but no other results of those efforts have been made public.
Hanks had been working on a film in Australia and Wilson had concert performances in the country before they were diagnosed.
Nine Network entertainment editor Richard Wilkins said that he was tested because he met Wilson at the Sydney Opera House on March 7 and again at Nine’s Sydney studio on March 9. The result came back positive on Sunday.
“I’m surprisingly very well,” Wilkins told Nine by Facetime from his Sydney home, where he has self-isolated since Wilson’s diagnosis.
“You could’ve knocked me over with a feather last night when I got that call. It took me a couple of minutes to reel from the news that they gave me. But I feel fine. I feel 100 percent,” Wilkins added.
The 65-year-old journalist said he could only assume that he had been infected by Wilson.
“We’re assuming this is from Rita. It may not be. They’ve all said it could be anyone, anywhere, any time, such is the prevalence of this thing,” Wilkins said.
“I was having a chat to her and that’s probably my best guess as to what happened,” he added.
Wilkins was one of 37 new cases confirmed over 24 hours in New South Wales, bringing the state total to 171.
The increase was the largest for Australia’s most populous state in a day.
At least 67 cases arrived from overseas and 44 were transmitted locally, while the remainder could not be determined or were still under investigation, authorities said.
Australia has about 300 cases overall.
Wilkins’ son Christian Wilkins was tested because he spent the night of March 10 in his father’s Sydney home. The 25-year-old 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.
Two Nine hosts who interviewed Wilson in their Sydney studio on March 9, David Campbell and Belinda Russell, yesterday remained in isolation in their homes waiting on test results.
Hanks’ diagnosis prompted an outpouring of get-well wishes in Australia and Hollywood. During the couple’s isolation, Hanks has posted on social media thanking their caregivers and evoking his famous movie roles.
A recent post of a stuffed kangaroo and two slices of toast slathered in Australian favorite Vegemite was captioned “Thanks to the Helpers.”
The advice for children to look to “helpers” in scary times is credited to American children’s TV host Mr Rogers, whom Hanks portrayed in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Hanks had been in Queensland shooting an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS