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

Elba, who starred in TV police drama "Luther" and played the Norse god Heimdall in "Avengers: Infinity War," said in a Twitter post that he had no symptoms but was isolating himself from others. It was not clear where he was located.

"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.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more + Show

Elba said he had taken the test because he found out on Friday he had been exposed to someone who had contracted the disease. He did not identify the person.

"Stay positive. Don't freak out," he said in a video accompanying the Twitter post. His wife, Sabrina, was seen in the background.

Hanks and Wilson said last week that they had contracted the disease while working on a film in Australia.

Former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, who appeared in "Quantum of Solace" in 2008, said on Sunday that she was "locked up at home" after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Elba's announcement followed the halting of more movie productions worldwide.

Movie studio Warner Bros said on Monday it had stopped filming on the fourth installment of the "Matrix" action franchise, starring Keanu Reeves, and the third "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a spinoff of its successful "Harry Potter" franchise.

Trade paper Variety said "Matrix" was about to film in Germany and "Fantastic Beasts" was about to start production.

Universal Pictures , Netflix Inc and Disney halted production of most of their live-action TV shows and movies last week as the coronavirus spread around the world.

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