Tom Hanks got sick in Australia, where coronavirus testing is a snap

SYDNEY — Tom Hanks had a cold, or so he thought: slight fever, body aches, chills, the usual.

In the United States, those symptoms may not be enough to get tested for the new coronavirus. But he and his wife, Rita Wilson, who also felt sick, weren’t at home — they were in Australia.

Here, testing is free and widely available, thanks to early and coordinated planning for a pandemic. On Thursday, Hanks said he and his wife had seen the efforts firsthand, as they tested positive for the virus.

“The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed,” Hanks wrote in an announcement he posted on Twitter, choosing capital letters for his new acquaintances. “We Hanks’ will be tested, observed and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires.”

Hanks, who had been in Australia shooting an untitled Elvis Presley biopic, is now the public face of a pandemic’s widening reach. What was once a national problem for China, where the virus originated and soon killed thousands, has become an international stress test for public health performance.

Some countries, like the United States, are looking increasingly ill prepared, or, in the case of Italy, fighting to avoid being overwhelmed. Others, like South Korea, moved quickly to test and isolate huge numbers of people and appear to be bringing their outbreaks under control.

Rather than play down the risks or promise that the problem would fade in a month or two — as President Trump did — Prime Minister Scott Morrison was one of the first world leaders to declare that the virus would span the planet.

Under the protocols Hanks referred to on Twitter, doctors and health officials will regularly check on them, whether or not they stay in the hospital after they are cleared for release.

“They’re...