Covid-19 coronavirus: How Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson supported each other

Rita Wilson says it "made it that little bit easier" that Tom Hanks had coronavirus at the same time as her.

The 63-year-old actress and her husband were struck down by the deadly virus last month while working in Australia and although they are both fully recovered now, Rita admits she was really "scared".

She said: "I think that having the virus at the same time made it that little bit easier. We were taking care of each other instead of having the pressure of taking care of one person and no one taking care of you or understanding that the person at home needs a break. We were fortunate we were in a place where we understood what the other was going through ... We both had a high fever and were extremely achey.

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Hello folks. @ritawilson and I want to thank everyone here Down Under who are taking such good care of us. We have Covid-19 and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else. There are those for whom it could lead to a very serious illness. We are taking it one-day-at-a-time. There are things we can all do to get through this by following the advice of experts and taking care of ourselves and each other, no? Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball. Hanx

A post shared by Tom Hanks (@tomhanks) on Mar 12, 2020 at 7:08pm PDT

"I lost my sense of taste and smell, had stomach issues and shivering like you wouldn't believe. Yeah, I was scared."

Rita was given chloroquine, a malaria medication, to try and help treat her coronavirus symptoms but she admits the side effects were "incredibly harsh".

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She shared: "Extreme nausea, vertigo, my muscles felt like wet noodles, so I couldn't really stand. We were just trying to get through it."

Rita had already been conscious about getting coronavirus in early March.

Speaking to the Guardian, she said: "It was early March, so people weren't social distancing yet. But I was already doing no handshakes, no hugging, trying to take my own measures. Then on the plane to Australia, I was like Lady Macbeth - I couldn't clean everything enough! The flight attendants were like, 'What is with this lady?' I had wipes, sanitiser, I wiped down everything."

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website