Jimmy Fallon Opens Up on Positive COVID Diagnosis

Yesterday night, on the first new episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the titular divulged that both he and his immediate family had tested positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of NBC’s holiday break. This stymied plans to have Fallon appear on Saturday Night Live, though that same episode was ultimately cut short when the staff were sent home early in the interest of pandemic safety.

“Hey guys, on the first day of our holiday break I tested positive for COVID. I was vaccinated and boostered which made me lucky enough to only have mild symptoms. Thank you to the doctors and nurses who work so hard around the clock to get everyone vaxxed,” Fallon wrote on his Instagram after his diagnosis. “Thank you to NBC for taking the testing protocols so seriously and doing a great job – and also thanks for putting me in the “What ‘chu talkin’ about Willis?” isolation room when they told me the news.”

On Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show, Fallon explained his feelings when he got the news. “I was so scared,” he said. “I went in like I normally did — because we’ve been doing this testing for a year now — so I know everyone up there, all the nurses and doctors… the nurse comes back in and she goes, ‘Come with me.’ I’ve never gotten, ‘Come with me.’”

“My girls tested positive as well. And they’re fine, everyone’s fine. Franny had the sniffles for like two days. Winnie had no symptoms at all,” Fallon said, though he added there was an upshot to this. “But that meant I could go home and spend the holidays with the kids, so I did. It was a Christmas miracle.”

Fallon concluded his monologue with a plea for vaccination. “I just want to tell everyone out there, please get vaxxed, get boosted, if you can. Because man, this thing, it’s a banger, it’s a real thing,” he said. “If I didn’t have that, I know, it just felt like I’d be real, real, real, real sick. So I just want to thank all of my doctors.”