Simon Cowell 'terrified' of coronavirus, making his son wear a mask in public

Simon Cowell is making his son Eric wear a mask during their trip to Disneyland. Photo / Getty Images

Simon Cowell is making his son wear a surgical mask in public to prevent him from catching Coronavirus.

The X Factor boss is "terrified" of the deadly virus - which originated from Wuhan in China last year and has infected over 71,000, killing 1,770 of them - so is forcing six-year-old Eric, whom he has with his partner Lauren Silverman, to wear the medical mask when they travel to Disneyland Paris next weekend.

Speaking on talkRADIO, Simon, 60, said: "I am terrified about it. I have worn masks for ages.

"When I cycle around town I wear a mask. But I am taking Eric to Disneyland Paris next weekend and I'm almost certain that when we're on the train we will be 100 per cent be wearing masks.

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Eric reading his new favourite book 'Come Find Me' and it's illustrated by my friend @terrycrews!

A post shared by @ simoncowell on Mar 21, 2019 at 9:40pm PDT

"And we'll have loads of hand sanitiser because it does scare me. I wouldn't want to be on a cruise ship right now. Those people stuck on that cruise ship. Why they haven't taken them off and put them in a proper hospital is unbelievable. That's somewhere I wouldn't go.

"I have seen movies about his kind of stuff before and you know, with so many people travelling around the world it was always going to happen one day.

"We're seeing it right in front of our eyes right now. It does worry me."

Simon has started taking his health seriously and recently changed to a plant-based diet as he has found he has more energy since cutting out animal products from his meals.

He said recently: "My memory's better, my energy's better. And when you've got a five year old you've got to be able to keep up with them because the minute they're awake they're all over the place. His energy is unbelievable.

"When he wakes up he's like, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy,' and before he goes to sleep, 'Daddy, daddy, daddy'. So I was conscious of the fact I have to keep up with him energy wise and someone recommended this as the way to go.

"I tried it and I stuck to it, it's one of the easiest things I've ever done."