Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Aug 24, 2026

Antonio Banderas reveals he has tested positive for coronavirus

Antonio Banderas reveals he has tested positive for coronavirus

Antonio Banderas has tested positive for coronavirus in Malaga on his 60th birthday, he announced today.

Banderas, who is best known for his roles in Desperado and The Mask of Zorro, announced his diagnosis on social media and revealed that he was experiencing symptoms of fatigue.

The actor celebrated his girlfriend Nicole Kimpel's 40th birthday with friends a week and a half ago and shared photos of the party including a large cake on his Instagram page.

Spain is the worst-hit nation in Europe at the moment, with many of its neighbours including Italy, Germany and the UK, recommending against travelling there.

And Malaga is one of the Spanish regions that continues to be worst hit by coronavirus, recording more than 800 new cases a day last week and face masks are mandatory in public spaces indoors and outdoors.

Banderas reassured fans that he expected to make a full recovery in the near future.

The Madrid-born actor posted online: 'I feel relatively well, just a little more tired than usual'.



The news of his diagnosis comes just days after celebrating girlfriend Nicole Kimpel's 39th birthday in Malaga



The actor posed for a picture with the girlfriend Nicole's birthday cake



Spain has already been hit with new travel restrictions in a blow to its tourism-reliant economy.

The country has so far seen 314,362 confirmed infections, with cases soaring over the past week and 28,503 deaths recorded.

On Friday the Health Ministry reported 4,507 new infections -- nearly 500 more than the day before.

The data, however, does not include information from the hardest-hit region of Aragon due to technical issues.

Banderas said he was 'confident that I will recover as soon as possible' from the 'infectious process that I suffer and that is affecting so many people around the planet'.

The actor added that he would be spending his time in isolation focusing on reading, writing and resting.



Rising cases: Spain has suffered a severe spike in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as this graph shows, while France, Germany and Italy have also seen upticks in new infections



Spain is also seeing a rise in coronavirus cases per million people 



He skipped a charity gala which he was supposed to host on Sunday in Marbella on southern Spain's Costa del Sol, not far from his Malaga hometown.

He said he would 'continue making plans to begin to give meaning to my newly released 60 years to which I arrive loaded with desire and enthusiasm'.

Banderas has homes in Spain, the US, and near Surrey in England.

The actor's work with Pedro Almodovar made him a star in Spain, before pop star Madonna introduced him to Hollywood.

He carved an illustrious career spanning more than 100 movies, with huge blockbuster success including Philadelphia, Puss in Boots, and Pain and Glory.



Banderas previously suffered a heart attack in January 2017 and credited Nicole with saving his life after giving him aspirin when he started suffering symptoms



Banderas previously suffered a heart attack in January 2017 and credited Nicole with saving his life after giving him aspirin when he started suffering symptoms.

He later underwent surgery to insert three stents in his arteries.

Banderas is the latest in a string of high-profile figures to test positive for the illness, including Tom Hanks, Idris Elba, Bryan Cranston and the singer Pink.

The Mediterranean country announced nearly 26,000 new infections in the last seven days, up from 16,000 the week before and fewer than 2,000 in late June.

Catalonia alone saw more than 5,000 cases in the space of a week, while the nearby region of Aragon had the country's highest infection rate per 100,000 people.

Despite Spain's increase in cases, only 46 virus patients were admitted to intensive care in the week up to last Friday, compared to more than 20,000 people who tested positive for the virus.

The death toll has generally remained in single figures despite the recent increase, with only 16 fatalities in the week to Thursday.

The country has a series of strict rules in place in a bid to stem an uptick in infections.

These include keeping a social distance of 1.5 metres, the mandatory wearing of face masks in public spaces and tracking and tracing methods.

Spanish police today broke up a 'coronavirus party' where guests were allegedly trying to spread the disease on purpose - as the country suffers a sharp rebound in cases with infections rising across Europe.

More than 60 people were found camping on an out-of-bounds Tenerife beach in what police called a 'get-together on the beach to spread Covid-19', apparently in the hope of developing immunity.

Civil Guard officers swooped to shut down the gathering with youngsters forced to dismantle their tents, but officials say the party was a 'very serious threat'.

Los Patos beach on Tenerife, where the alleged 'coronavirus party' took place, is traditionally a well-known nudist beach on the Canary Islands which have been lobbying for an exemption from Britain's quarantine rules.



A Spanish Civil Guard officer watches on as youngsters dismantle their tents on a closed Tenerife beach where guests are alleged to have attended a 'get-together to spread Covid-19



As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a 'second wave' of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people - a foundation that the world's biggest trading bloc is built on.

Despite repeated warnings about the dangers of unannounced checks, some countries have imposed new restrictions, or demanded that travelers quarantine.

This is recalling the panic border closures after Europe's first outbreak emerged in Italy in February, blocking traffic and medical equipment.

Beyond the economic impact of uncoordinated measures, experts fear that countries are becoming so used to lowering the gates at their frontiers as they see fit that the future of Europe's ID-check free travel zone known as the Schengen area is in real peril.

In a letter to national governments, the European Commission warns that 'while we must ensure that the EU is ready for possible resurgences of COVID-19 cases ... we should at the same time avoid a second wave of uncoordinated actions at the internal borders of the EU.'

'The re-establishment of ineffective restrictions and internal border controls must be avoided.

'Rather, the response should be to have targeted, proportionate and coordinated measures, informed by scientific evidence,' the letter, sent to the 27 EU member countries and Britain, said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Give Ukraine Classified Storm Shadow Blueprints for Domestic Missile Production
UK Graduate Job Vacancies Plunge 45% to Lowest Levels on Record
Iranian Hackers Shut Down British Power Plant for Four Days in Landmark Cyber Attack
Novak Djokovic Reveals Relentless Self-Doubt and Rejects Retirement in New Documentary
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
Thieves Steal Antonello da Messina Renaissance Masterpieces From Sicilian Museum
Better.com Founder Who Fired 900 Employees on Zoom Is Ousted as CEO
Italian Speed Camera Issues Nearly 32,000 Fines in 10 Weeks, Worth More Than €3 Million
AI Manager at San Francisco Store Recommends Firing Human Employee
Google Launches Pixel 11 With Gemini AI at the Center of Its Hardware Strategy
Reform UK Unveils Plan to Cut Welfare Spending by More Than £50 Billion a Year
Prime Minister Andy Burnham Praised Extinction Rebellion for Doing a 'Great Service'
UK Wildfire Phone Alert Triggers Backlash as Users Switch Off Emergency Warnings
Heathrow Roads Reopen After Burst Water Main Floods Access to Terminals 2 and 3
Former NBA Players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White Say They Will Enter 2027 WNBA Draft
Former Cambridge Professor Jason Arday Found Dead Days After Resigning Amid Plagiarism Row
US Appeals Court Rules AI Agent's Website Actions Are Legally Attributed to the User
France's Constitutional Council Blocks Social Media Ban for Children Under 15
Liechtenstein Changes Royal Succession Rules to Allow Women to Inherit the Throne
Women Allege Rape and Sexual Abuse at British Army College for Teenage Recruits
Minnesota: Two independent investigators posed as Muslims (one wearing a burqa) and showed how they could vote in elections without identification.
×