Tom Hanks shares pic of his donated plasma for coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine research

Los Angeles: After recovering from COVID-19, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks has shared photographs of himself donating plasma on social media.

The 63-year-old actor donated his plasma last week after he and wife Rita Wilson recovered from COVID-19 and were deemed to be carrying antibodies that could be beneficial to researchers looking to beat the virus, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Hanks shared a picture of a huge bag containing a pale yellow liquid, along with the caption: “Here’s last week’s bag of plasma. Such a bag!”

“After the paperwork, it’s as easy as taking a nap. Thanks @arimoin and UCLA. Hanx,” he continued in the caption.

The couple’s blood will be used by medical researchers who are developing a vaccine for coronavirus after they won their battle with the illness. In early March, the couple had tested positive for Covid-19 while in Australia. They returned home to Los Angeles at the end of March after recovering.

Wilson and Hanks were among the first celebrities to reveal their positive diagnosis last month, while they were in Australia. Hanks was filming an untitled Elvis Presley film in the country. The couple is now back in Los Angeles and on the way to recovery.

In an interview on The National Defense Radio Show, the 63-year-old actor detailed his and his wife’s struggle with respiratory illness.

“Rita went through a tougher time than I did,” he said of their recovery in Australia, adding: “She had a much higher fever and she had some other symptoms. She lost her sense of taste and smell. She got absolutely no joy from food for a better part of three weeks.”

He continued: “She was so nauseous, she had to crawl on the floor from the bed to the facilities. It lasted a while.”

Hanks “had some body aches and was very fatigued”, and shared how he struggled to find the energy to do simple exercises. He and Wilson were placed in “lockdown for three days” in a local hospital.