A grandmother who befriended a stranger after she accidentally invited him to Thanksgiving dinner has contracted coronavirus.

Jamal Hinton posted on twitter that both Wanda Dench, his ‘honorary grandmother’, and her husband Lonnie Dench from Arizona, had both contracted the disease and that Mr Dench has been hospitalised.

“I am so sad to announce that Wanda and Lonnie both have Covid-19 and that Lonnie is currently in the hospital fighting both Covid and Pneumonia please send words of love and encouragement their way,” he wrote.

The pairing rose to internet fame in 2016 when Ms Dench texted the then 17-year-old accidentally inviting him to Thanksgiving, thinking the number belonged to her 24-year-old grandson.

Rather than ignore the unknown number, Mr Hinton continued the conversation and the pair sent each other selfies.

Once they realised she had sent the text accidentally, Mr Hinton asked if he could still come over for dinner texting: “Can I still get a plate tho?”

“Of course you can. That’s what grandmas do… feed everyone,” Ms Dench replied at the time in an exchange that later went viral.

Mr Hinton went to join the family for dinner and now the two families have been celebrating the holiday together for four years.

The two document their reunion every year with a twitter selfie as requested by their followers.