After Hanks, it's Elba

British actor Idris Elba says he has tested positive for the coronavirus, joining Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson among the first major celebrities to contract the respiratory disease.

Hanks and Wilson have been released from the Australian hospital where they were in isolation since last week, their son Chet said yesterday.

Elba, who starred in TV police drama Luther and played the Norse god Heimdall in Avengers: Infinity War, tweeted that he had no symptoms but was isolating himself from others.

"This morning I tested positive for Covid-19. I feel OK, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus. Stay home people and be pragmatic. I will keep you updated on how I'm doing. No panic," Elba, 47, wrote.

Elba said he had taken the test because he found out he had been exposed to someone who had contracted the disease.

"Stay positive. Don't freak out," he said in a video accompanying the tweet.

Others who said they have tested positive are former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and Norwegian Kristofer Hivju, who played Tormund in Game of Thrones.

Hanks, the multiple Oscar-winning actor, was on the Gold Coast near Brisbane to film an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann when he and Wilson, both 63, came down with the disease.

Wilson, a singer-songwriter, had given concerts in Sydney and Brisbane before testing positive. Australian authorities have been tracking the couple's contacts.

Australia has so far confirmed nearly 400 cases of coronavirus, with five deaths.

Hanks was believed to have returned to the penthouse apartment in the Gold Coast where the couple had been staying while he worked on the Luhrmann film, in which he was due to portray Elvis' long-time manager, Colonel Tom Parker.