Ellen DeGeneres, who just gave SUV to Pinay nurse, reveals she has COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — US talk show host Ellen DeGeneres tested positive for COVID-19, she said Thursday, joining the list of well-known names to have contracted the virus as it has spread around the world.
"I want to let you all know that I tested positive for Covid-19. Fortunately, I'm feeling fine right now," DeGeneres said on Instagram.
"Anyone who has been in close contact with me has been notified."
Her announcement came after another post about her new YouTube video showing her delivering a brand new Hyundai Palisade Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) to a Filipina COVID-19 frontliner in Los Angeles, California.
The video was posted on her YouTube channel last December 9.
The Filipino-American nurse, Flor Maylyn Roz, takes care of COVID-19 patients in a local hospital.
“I became a nurse (because) since I was a kid, I have loved helping people. The pandemic has changed everything. People who are sick, since they cannot be visited by their families, I will be the one who’s gonna be by their side and let them know that there is this person who loves them,” Roz, who lives with husband Rowin and their two-year-old son Grey, said in Ellen's video.
“It’s been hard and I haven’t been home for months because I work with COVID patients and it’s just heartbreaking not to see your family. But I can’t do anything but be strong for them."
Roz got COVID-19 last March, which prompted her to stop working for months.
“Right now, me and my husband share a car. If I don’t have the car, I sometimes ask my co-workers to pick me up and I walk. Or sometimes I take Uber,” she shared.
"I'm so honored just being there for people who I take care of," she said of her life as frontliner.
"It's just amazing what you're doing," Ellen told Roz. "Just know how much we love you and appreciate you when you're exhausted and when there's time that you could barely go on anymore, just remember how many people love you and how many people are so grateful for you."
Related: Ellen gifts Pinay nurse with new SUV
In September, DeGeneres opened the new season of her show with an apology that addressed highly publicized allegations of a toxic workplace culture under her watch.
DeGeneres, 62, made waves in 1997 after becoming one of the first television stars to publicly come out as gay, which she did while starring in the sitcom "Ellen."
The United States is struggling to quell the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 15 million confirmed cases and 290,000 deaths.
Madonna, Tom Hanks, Idris Elba and Amitabh Bachchan are among those in the entertainment business to have reported they have had COVID-19. — Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo, with reports from Agence France-Presse
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