Idris Elba says he and wife Sabrina ‘still feel OK ‘ ten days after testing positive for coronavirus

Idris Elba has given fans an update on his condition ten days after being diagnosed with coronavirus.

Posting on Twitter on Thursday, the British actor said he and his wife Sabrina, who has also tested positive are ‘still feeling OK’.  

The star admitted the couple can’t wait to return home to London though as they quarantine near to where Idris was filming upcoming Netflix film The Harder They Fall in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Sharing a selfie, Idris wrote: ‘Hoping everyone is coping with this $@@!! Currently still quarantine.. Sab and I still feel ok so far with no changes. Dr told us that after quarantine we will be immune for a certain time since our antibodies fought this.’ 

‘At some point we’d like to go home to London. Bsafe.’

Idris also spent time replying to followers, telling one who asked if he had had any symptoms at all: ‘No not really… the day I got tested I had body aches and a headache.’

He told another fan that he thought he was on day 13 of the virus.   

Idris appeared to confirm in a video message last week that he had contracted the virus from Canadian Prime Minister’s wife Justin Trudeau Sophie, 44, after the two met shortly before they both tested positive for COVID-19.

The actor revealed that he was exposed to the deadly disease on 4 March, the same day he posed with Sophie at the We Day UK charity event, in Wembley.

Idris said: ‘It’s hard to say when I got the disease or when I contracted COVID-19, it’s hard to say when. I will say that I know I’ve been exposed to it from March 4.

‘That’s when the person that came up positive, that was the time I got in contact with that person.

‘So essentially, I could have been positive from March 4, but it’s hard to say when I contracted someone with corona, you can contract it at anytime but my known exposure was March 4.’

Idris met Trudeau’s wife Sophie, who has also been tested positive for COVID-19, on 4 March at a We Day UK charity event, in Wembley. 

Posing for photos together at the event, the pair were in close proximity to each other, as well as other celebrities such as Lewis Hamilton, and attendees.

Idris then addressed backlash as to why he was tested for COVID-19 after he had ‘no symptoms’ and ‘felt ok’. 

‘I am on location about to start filming. The news breaks that this person, who is also in the public eye, has tested positive.’ 

Idris previously explained he was on location and about to start filming when he got tested: ‘It was definitely something I had to do as I was about to start filming and be around a lot of people,’ he said.

‘My job made me test immediately, I had to test anyway, as it meant I was putting a lot of people at risk if I had been exposed. We were lucky to get a test very quickly because of the shortages of the test.

‘It was the best thing to do, I was going to be around a lot of people starting this film.’

Earlier this week it was revealed Idris’ wife Sabrina Dhowre-Elba had also tested positive after choosing to remain with her husband in self isolation when he was diagnosed.

Defending their decision to isolate together following The Wire star’s diagnosis, she told Oprah Winfrey ‘I wanted to be with him’ and claimed she felt ‘the instinct of a wife’ to take care of him. 

In an interview on Winfrey’s new Apple TV+ series Oprah Talks, the couple opened up about being quarantined together in New Mexico, where Elba’s latest film was in production.

‘Actually, I found out this morning, Oprah, that I tested positive,’ Sabrina told the host on Facetime on Saturday.

Idris, 47, told Oprah, he ‘hasn’t witnessed any major symptoms’ and is ‘feeling okay.’

‘It’s interesting and worrying that people are possibly carrying this disease and are seemingly okay, but can spread it easily,’ he said of not being symptomatic.

Sabrina, who also feels healthy, said: ‘I don’t feel anything that would come to what people would now expect to be a symptom of coronavirus, which is really strange. It might change in the coming weeks, and we’ll keep everyone updated.’

To stay entertained in isolation, the pair are focusing on the ‘silver lining’ of spending quality time together and playing video games, chess and ‘staying creative.’