Tom Hanks back in Queensland quarantine, with police to check on him
Hollywood star Tom Hanks has arrived back in Queensland after he was diagnosed with COVID-19 on the Gold Coast in March in one of the world's most high-profile cases.
And Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, just like anyone else, Hanks would be subject to random police checks to ensure he remained in quarantine.
Tom Hanks and wife Rita Wilson were quarantined in Australia after contracting coronavirus.
Hanks, who has returned to finish filming an Elvis biopic on the Gold Coast, was taken straight into hotel quarantine after flying into the state on a private jet on Tuesday night.
Ms Palaszczuk said Hanks and other crew members working on the film were allowed entry into Queensland under the screen industry’s COVID-safe plan.
“Under that plan they have to stay in the place for two weeks just like everybody else and they will have random checks, as my understanding, by the police,” she told Queensland Parliament on Wednesday.
Production on the movie, which was in pre-production at Village Roadshow Studios, was halted in March after Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, tested positive for coronavirus.
Work on the film was expected to ramp up again at the end of September after Australian film legend Baz Luhrmann spent months liaising with health authorities.
Hanks and Wilson spent time in a Gold Coast COVID isolation ward before heading back to the US.
Following his time in quarantine, Australians had to school Hanks on the appropriate use of Vegemite following an Instagram post that featured some dubiously thick spreading.
"I don't mind the Vegemite – but I found out I was putting way too much of it on my toast because I thought it was a volume business," he said in July, while teasing his return.
"There are dates on the calendar that say maybe we will be making this movie in October, but all of that stuff is a 'maybe' as questions about quarantine and temperatures and sterilising soundstages and all of that go on."
No other cast, crew or production staff were deemed to have been infected by the pair before they were rushed into their Gold Coast isolation.
Their earlier movements sparked concerns across Sydney after visits to the Opera House, restaurants and the Nine studios, sending some into quarantine.
With Matt Dennien