Tom Hanks joked about his coronavirus battle during his monologue on 'Saturday Night Live: At Home'.

The 63-year-old actor and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for the virus back in March - but having overcome the disease, Tom was happy to joke about his personal struggle on the iconic comedy show.

He said: ''It is a strange time to try to be funny, but trying to be funny is 'SNL's whole thing, so we thought, what the heck let's give it a shot ... Why me as host? Well, for one, I have been the celebrity canary in the coal mine for the coronavirus.''

Tom and his wife were two of the first well-known celebrities to be struck down with the virus.

The Hollywood star continued: ''Ever since being diagnosed I have been more like America's dad than ever before.

''[In that] no one wants to be around me very long, and I make people uncomfortable.''

Tom - who has been married to Rita since 1988 - was diagnosed with the virus whilst in Australia.

And he joked about how some of the cultural differences made things a little harder to understand.

He explained: ''Now, the folks in Australia are fantastic in every way, but they use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit when they take your temperature.

''So, when they came in and said, 'You're 36,' it seemed very bad to me. It turns out 36 is fine. 38 is bad. So basically, it's how Hollywood treats female actors.''

Tom added: ''Now, my wife and I, we're doing fine, we're doing great. We're hunkered down like all of us should be.

''In fact, this suit, this is the first time I've worn anything other than sweat pants since March 11th. And my wife had to help me put it on, because I forgot how buttons work.''