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'The Bachelor' star Colton Underwood tests positive for coronavirus

The 28-year-old star of last year's season of 'The Bachelor' is encouraging everyone to 'Please do yourself and your loved ones a favor and stay home.'
Credit: AP
Cast members Cassie Randolph, left, and Colton Underwood from the reality series, "The Bachelor," appear during an interview in New York on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)

WASHINGTON — Colton Underwood, the 28-year-old star of last year's season of "The Bachelor," says he's tested positive for coronavirus.

The former "Bachelor" said in an Instagram and Twitter post on Friday that he's been following health officials' social distancing guidelines since last week, but has tested positive for the new virus. 

Underwood said he started feeling symptoms several days ago.

"For anyone out there that is hesitant to self quarantine... please do yourself and your loved ones a favor and stay home," he wrote in the social media post. "We will all beat this and come out stronger on the other side. I’ll keep you posted, Love y’all."

Underwood was 26 when he appeared on the ABC show in 2019. He and his girlfriend Cassie Randolph ended up together during and are still a couple.

And if the coronavirus outbreak wasn't enough, he also shared on Instagram that Randolph was stung by a stingray -- which he joked was a warning about the importance of self-isolating from "Mother Nature." She was stung when the couple ventured out for an ocean swim in Huntington Beach in Southern California.

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Credit: AP
Cast members Cassie Randolph, left, and Colton Underwood from the reality series, "The Bachelor," appear during an interview in New York on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Gary Gerard Hamilton)

Health officials have been urging people to keep distance from each other and self-isolate as much as possible amid the coronavirus pandemic to help slow the spread of the outbreak.

Underwood said he's sharing his video testimony on his diagnosis not to create fear or panic, but to encourage, especially young, healthy people like his considers himself, to do their part stay home and take care of themselves and others.

He says he's doing OK at Randolph's family's house.

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