Dead, ill, cured: celebrities hit by the coronavirus

By: 5 years ago

From world leaders and royalty to musicians, sports stars and actors, the coronavirus has hit millions around the world, including the rich and famous.

Here is a roundup of high-profile figures who have died, been infected by or cured of COVID-19.

– Deceased –

Jazz great Ellis Marsalis died on April 1 aged 85 after contracting the virus.

Veteran Afro-jazz star Manu Dibango, 86, and revered American playwright Terrence McNally, 81, both died on March 24, following coronavirus complications.

Tim Brooke-Taylor, 79, a British comic actor best known for TV show The Goodies and radio show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, died on Sunday.

John Prine, 73, an American folk legend widely considered one of his generation’s most influential songwriters, died on April 8.

Senegal’s Pape Diouf, 68, ex-president of French football club Olympique de Marseille, died March 31 in Dakar.

Former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz died March 21, aged 76.

Former Republic of Congo president Jacques Joachim Yhombi Opango died in France on March 30, aged 81.

Mahmud Jibril, former head of the Libyan rebel government that overthrew dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, died on April 5.

– In hospital –

Marianne Faithfull, 73, a 1960s icon and celebrated singer songwriter, was hospitalised in London on April 4 after testing positive.

Chilean author Luis Sepulveda, 70, has been hospitalised in Spain after first showing symptoms on February 25.

This combination photo created on March 13, 2020 shows (clockwise from top L) Arsenal’s Spanish head coach Mikel Arteta before the English Premier League football match between Crystal Palace and Arsenal at Selhurst Park in south London on January 11, 2020, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau during the G7 Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec on June 8, 2018, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert before a NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 4, 2019, Chelsea’s English midfielder Callum Hudson-Odoi at a training session at the team’s Cobham training facility in Stoke D’Abernon, southwest of London, on November 4, 2019, Australia’s former home affairs minister Peter Dutton at a press conference in Canberra on August 21, 2018 and US actor Tom Hanks at the world premiere of the film “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” in London on July 16, 2018. – Disneyland and Broadway are going dark, several European countries are shutting schools and stock markets cratered Thursday as fears over the spread of the coronavirus ricochet around the globe. Arteta, Gregoire Trudeau, Gobert, Hanks, Dutton and Hudson-Odoi have all tested positive for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. (Photo by AFP)

– Infected –

A week after he was admitted to hospital and then spent three days in intensive care, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 55, was discharged on Sunday to continue his recovery at Chequers, the country estate of British prime ministers.

Michel Barnier, who leads the EU’s negotiations with Britain on Brexit, announced March 19 that he had the virus and is now recovering at home. On April 15 he is due to hold a video call with his British counterpart David Frost, who also tested positive.

Britain’s Prince Charles and Prince Albert II of Monaco, who both tested positive and showed mild symptoms, have now come out of quarantine.

Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actress and singer Rita Wilson, have recovered and returned home to Los Angeles after being quarantined for two weeks in Australia.

British actor Idris Elba, who tested positive but was asymptomatic, announced the end of his isolation March 31.

Nobel laureate and former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has contracted the virus.

In Italy several football players at Juventus are infected, including France’s 2018 World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi and Argentinian attacker Paulo Dybala. Both players remain in isolation as they await the results of new tests.

Former AC Milan defender Paolo Maldini and his footballer son Daniel both tested positive and are now recovered.

In England, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta tested positive on March 12 and is now recovered.

Among the 14 NBA basketball players who have tested positive, Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, Christian Wood and Marcus Smart have since said they have recuperated.

Spanish opera star Placido Domingo, 79, who had tested positive and been hospitalised, was released March 30.

– In isolation… just in case –

Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi went into self-quarantine on April 9 for two more weeks, having just recently come out of a first period of 14-day self-quarantine.

All of the country’s 63 MPs have also gone into quarantine after a nurse assigned to do screening of the legislators tested positive.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been in self-isolation since his wife Sophie tested positive in March, said on April 6 he would try to keep working from home “as much as possible.” His wife announced on March 28 that she had recovered.

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