Coronavirus: No symptoms, but Richard Wilkins has Corona for life

Weekend Today host Richard “Dickie” Wilkins, NSW’s 171st case of COVID-19, says he never showed symptoms of the deadly disease.

Richard Wilkins during his weeks as a coronavirus sufferer. Picture: Instagram

They call him the coronavirus superman.

Weekend Today host Richard “Dickie” Wilkins, NSW’s 171st case of COVID-19, never really showed any symptoms of the deadly disease.

Wilkins, now several weeks out of quarantine, tells Diary: “I swear on my life, I’ve still not had a runny nose, a headache or a fever. And I’ve not had a Codral or a Nurofen. Not a thing.”

He’s been told he almost certainly caught the virus from the celebrity couple of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson after catching up with them backstage at the Sydney Opera House on March 7. But Wilkins says contact tracing indicates he didn’t pass it on to anyone. That’s despite the fact that a succession of media identities, including Ten’s Angela Bishop, Nova’s Fitzy and Wippa, and his on-air partner Rebecca Maddern, had to go into self-isolation because of their contact with him.

Dickie says his own quarantine in his Sydney harbourside home made him realise who his real friends are, with celebrity chef Luke Mangan cooking up a “socially distanced” barbecue in his garage to help him through the isolation.

Meanwhile, Wilkins says he now has “Corona for life”. No, not the virus, but the beverage. Many of his friends decided to become comedians for a day with their choice of “get well” gifts.

The result? Eight cases of Corona beer are now clogging up the Wilkins residence.

Read Nick Tabakoff’s full Media Diary column on Monday